22nd October 2021
Studying cardiovascular disease for over thirty years can take you to some very interesting and seemingly strange places. Places where I never expected to find myself. Connections appear where you least thought they would be, and entirely new worlds of research open up. Very often, into places where mainstream medical thinking simply does not go.
The fascinating thing is how so many things end up looping back round, in ways that you would never have considered. One of those places is within the world of vitamins. Vital…amines, and the connections to cardiovascular disease.
Unfortunately, mainstream medicine has firmly locked vitamins into a tightly constrained box. Yes, it is accepted that vitamins are vital, because you die without them – that is where the ‘vital’, in vitamins, comes from after all.
However, it is universally believed that the exact requirements for all vitamins – known as the recommended daily allowance (RDA) – which were established decades ago. It is also universally believed that everyone gets sufficient vitamin intake from their diet, so there is absolutely no need for supplementation.
But how true are these comfortable assumptions? At one point I looked into Vitamin B12 deficiency. Even mainstream medicine agrees that this can, and does, occur and can lead to very serious medical problems. Irreversible nerve damage and paralysis, for example.
The normal range for Vitamin B12 in the UK varies from 190 to 950 picograms/ml (pg/ml). [A picogram (pg) is one trillionth of a gram]. This at least is the normal range, in some laboratories… in some places the UK. In truth, it is almost impossible to find a consistent figure.
This ‘normal’ range also varies enormously from country to country. In Japan, for example, it is 500 – 1300 pg/ml. Thus, the lower range is nearly three times higher in Japan than the UK1. If you went to your GP in the UK with a level of four hundred and said you were Vitamin B12 deficient they would point you to the door. In Japan, they would treat you.
Another thing to note here is that the range is almost always ridiculously wide. It can vary by a factor of five! This alone suggests that people are pretty much guessing at what “is” normal. Despite this, most doctors remain perfectly content that a normal/healthy level has been well established and is based on robust science. There is no need to look again.
This is not the case, not even remotely. Here, for example, are the first three key recommendations on determining what constitutes Vitamin B12 ‘deficiency’ from the British Society for Haematology – with some of the highly technical text removed. They use the term cobalamin here, not Vitamin B12, although it is (basically) the same thing [Cobalamin (Vitamin B12) comes in several different formulations e.g., hydroxycobalamin, methylcobalamin, cyanocobalamin]
- The clinical picture is the most important factor in assessing the significance of test results assessing cobalamin status because there is no ‘gold standard’ test to define deficiency
- Serum cobalamin currently remains the first‐line test… Serum holotranscobalamin has the potential as a first‐line test, but an indeterminate ‘grey area’ may still exist.
- Definitive cut‐off points to define clinical and subclinical deficiency states are not possible, given the variety of methodologies used and technical issues, and local reference ranges should be established2
There you are, clear…. as mud. What the British Haematology Society informs us is that: there is no gold standard test for vitamin B12 deficiency, there are also ‘grey’ areas, and ‘definitive cut-off points to define deficiency states are not possible.’
As with almost all areas of medical research, the more you dig down, the more uncertain things become. The authors of the report are not even sure if you should be measuring cobalamin, or holotranscobalamin – whatever that may be. It sounds like something from Star Trek.
When it comes to vitamin D there is a similar lack of clarity. In the UK, recent guidelines on vitamin D suggested more people should take supplements… finally. However, the NHS advice on vitamin D then goes on to make this statement:
‘…although roughly one in five people has low vitamin D levels, this is not the same as a vitamin D deficiency. It is not accurate to say that millions of people are at risk of deficiency.’3
So, according to the NHS, a low level is not a deficiency. However, a low level cannot, by definition, be normal. For, if it were normal, you could not call it “low”! So, what is it? Here is where words really start tripping over each other. Low, deficient, normal…optimal, inadequate, sub-optimal? Trying to pin any clear definition down is, I can assure you, like trying to pick up mercury using your fingertips.
In the same article it is stated that a blood level of 20nmol/l is ‘sufficient’. Again, what does sufficient mean? Is it the same thing as normal, or is it optimal? Is this really the level we should be aiming for? The National Institutes of Health in the US provides completely different figures for vitamin D deficiency. Or, as they choose to call it – ‘inadequacy.’
‘Some people are potentially at risk of inadequacy at 30 to 50 nmol/L (12–20 ng/mL). Levels of 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL) or more are sufficient for most people. In contrast, the Endocrine Society stated that, for clinical practice, a serum 25(OH)D concentration of more than 75 nmol/L (30 ng/mL) is necessary to maximize the effect of vitamin D on calcium, bone, and muscle metabolism.’
The truth is that, wherever you look the figures are all over the place. Made more complicated by the fact that the US uses different units of measurement to everyone in the civilised world, by which I mean Europe… of course. When they say seventy-five, they really mean thirty. ‘You say nanograms per millimole, I say nanomoles per litre – let’s call the whole thing off.’
So, should you be aiming for 20nmol/l? Or is it thirty or forty, or fifty? If in doubt aiming higher would be my advice, better safe than sorry. After all, it has been found that the majority of people with cancer have ‘low’, if not ‘deficient’ levels of Vitamin D.
‘More than three-fourths of people with a variety of cancers have low levels of vitamin D, and the lowest levels are associated with more advanced cancers, a new study suggests.’4
If having a low level of Vitamin D means you are more likely to get cancer, then I would certainly define this as deficient, not low, and I would certainly want to do something about it.
And it is not just cancer. There are studies linking low vitamin D to many other diseases, such as kidney disease and, more importantly for the sake of this article, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. As highlighted in this paper: ‘Vitamin D deficiency increases risk of nephropathy and cardiovascular diseases in Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.’
‘Vitamin D (VD) deficiency is associated with insulin function and secretion. It is linked with diabetes mellitus (DM) progression, and complications were also recorded…The evidence from this study suggest that patients with Type 2 diabetes with vitamin D deficiency are at higher risk for developing CVD and nephropathy [kidney damage].’ 5
Additionally, a low Vitamin D level can be a factor that drives obesity and diabetes in the first place. Here, from the study: ‘Vitamin D deficiency is a risk factor for obesity and diabetes type 2 in women at late reproductive age.’
‘Our results showed that vitamin D insufficiency is highly prevalent in the population of healthy women. Low 25(OH)D [a form of vitamin D] levels correlated with high body fat, glucose levels and decreased insulin sensitivity. We conclude that vitamin D deficiency is a potential risk factor for obesity and development of insulin resistance leading to diabetes type 2. 6
If you choose to look, the evidence for the potential harms of low… deficient… inadequate…insufficient… suboptimal Vitamin D stretch on, and on, and on. Cancer, diabetes, obesity, kidney failure, cardiovascular disease. In the era of COVID19, there are also significant benefits from vitamin D in boosting of the immune system and reducing the risk of infection.7
Cutting to the chase, most doctors are eager to dismiss the benefits of Vitamin D on, pretty much, anything. However, I think the evidence for benefits on overall, and cardiovascular health are overwhelming.
Of equal importance is the fact that vitamin D is incredibly safe to take. It is true that toxicity has been seen in a few people, very few. However, it took sixty thousand units a day for several months to reach this point.
‘Taking 60,000 international units (IU) a day of vitamin D for several months has been shown to cause toxicity.8 ‘
Frankly, taking that dose would be nuts, and would not be required by anyone, ever. Personally, I take nine thousand units a day from October to March. I am l looking to get my levels above 50nmol/l, and keeping them there, if possible.
And why on earth would you not? Vitamin D is remarkably safe, and cheap. In the summer you don’t need to take any at all. You can get all you need by going out in the sun when it shines and, shock, horror, exposing your skin for an hour or so. Even more if you like.
Why do doctors dislike vitamins so much? It is complicated, but primarily driven by the pharmaceutical industry, who absolutely hate the idea of people buying ‘health’ products that they cannot make any money from. So, they make wild claims about vitamins damaging health, and suchlike. They are simply trying to take out the opposition, usual tactics. For example:
‘….a USA TODAY investigation finds that a wide array of dietary supplement companies caught with drug-spiked products are run by people with criminal backgrounds and regulatory run-ins. Consumers buying products from these firms are in some cases entrusting their health and safety to people with rap sheets for crimes involving barbiturates, crack cocaine, Ecstasy and other narcotics, as well as arrests for selling or possessing steroids and human growth hormone. Other supplement company executives have records of fraud, theft, assault, weapons offenses, money laundering or other offenses, the investigation shows.9’
Blah de blah. I amuse myself by reading the title of the book by Peter Gøtzsche: ‘Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime. How big pharma has corrupted healthcare.’ As he says. ‘If you don’t think the system is out of control, please email me and explain why drugs are the third leading cause of death… If such a hugely lethal epidemic had been caused by a new bacterium or a virus, or even one-hundredth of it, we would have done everything we could to get it under control…’
Something reinforced by Richard Smith (previous long-time editor of the British Medical Journal) in the foreword to Gøtzsche’s book:
‘It is scary how many similarities there are between this industry (the pharmaceutical industry) and the mob. The mob makes obscene amounts of money, as does this industry. The side effects of organised crime are killings and death, and the side effects are the same in this industry. The mob bribes politicians and others, and so does the drug industry.’
Just in case you think Gøtzsche and Smith are over-reacting, here is what Harvard University states:
‘Few know that systematic reviews of hospital charts found that even properly prescribed drugs (aside from misprescribing, overdosing, or self-prescribing) cause about 1.9 million hospitalizations a year. Another 840,000 hospitalized patients are given drugs that cause serious adverse reactions for a total of 2.74 million serious adverse drug reactions. About 128,000 people die from drugs prescribed to them. This makes prescription drugs a major health risk, ranking 4th with stroke as a leading cause of death. The European Commission estimates that adverse reactions from prescription drugs cause 200,000 deaths; so together, about 328,000 patients in the U.S. and Europe die from prescription drugs each year. The FDA does not acknowledge these facts and instead gathers a small fraction of the cases.10’
Ouch. And there are those who think I am highly critical of the pharmaceutical industry. I’m a pussy cat in comparison. How many deaths have there been from vitamins? Last time I looked; it was one, over a ten-year period. I think a large crate of vitamin D fell off a lorry and squashed someone… (joke).
Anyway, yes, as you may have noticed, I have not yet talked about C… Vitamin C. I have just been setting the scene. Rearranging the mental furniture. So, now to vitamin C. How much do you need? What good does it do?
I find it somewhat strange that almost all animals can synthesize their own Vitamin C, but we cannot. Along with a few great apes, a couple of fruit bats and guinea pigs. Animals synthesize it from glucose, in four steps.
Humans have retained the first three steps but lack the fourth. We lost this fourth step about forty million years ago. Perhaps because we learned to re-cycle vitamin C within our red blood cells, so we need far less of it. The ‘electron transfer hypothesis.’ If making Vitamin C uses up resources that we need for other things… why bother. Just eat it, there is plenty about11.
Anyway, for whatever the exact reason, we lost the ability to make vitamin C. So, we now have to eat it. Mostly from fruit and plants. Tricky if you are Inuit. However, animal meat does contain enough vitamin C to keep the Inuit going.
There is a hypothesis that the Inuit ensure that they eat the adrenal glands of various animals they kill, because this is where there is the highest concentration of vitamin C lies. I don’t think I have seen this proven. Anyway, how could the Inuit possibly have known where vitamin C was concentrated? A clever trick indeed. Do they have secret biochemical labs hidden within glaciers?
Moving on. What happens if you do not eat enough vitamin C? Well, a whole lot of different things. But the most serious problem is that vitamin C is required to create collagen. Think of collagen as being like the steel bars in concrete, providing support and strength for tissues around the body. Without collagen, things can start to break apart quite dramatically.
Blood vessels, for example, need a lot of collagen, as they have to withstand a lot of pressure, and squeezing and bending and suchlike. So, one of the first clinical signs of scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) is often bleeding gums. Followed by bleeding everything else. Followed by bleeding to death. Not recommended.
What is both pertinent, and fascinating at this point in the vitamin C story, is that evolution came up with a plug to reduce the risk of bleeding to death in vitamin C deficiency. Until enough vitamin C could be found and consumed again, and collagen synthesis got back to normal.
This plug is called Lipoprotein(a). Or Lp(a).
If blood vessels start to crack, this action attracts a Lp(a) to the scene. It then flings itself at the cracks, to form a plug that is highly resistant to being broken apart. More so, than any other part of a blood clot. It achieves this resistance by using a very clever trick, which is that it blocks the activation of the enzyme specifically designed to break down blood clots.
At this point I need to explain a bit more about blood clots… So, off we go once more, on a detour.
The enzyme designed to break clots apart is plasmin, which does the job of slicing apart strands of fibrin. Fibrin is the very tough strand of protein that wraps around all blood clots, then binds them together, then tightens up the entire clot up and makes it very tough and difficult to ‘lyse’ i.e. slice apart.
Fibrin is constructed when smaller pieces of protein, called fibrinogen are linked up, end to end, to form the much longer fibrin strand. This is the final step of the monstrously complex ‘clotting cascade’. [You could not allow long strands of fibrin to float about freely in the blood. They would just end getting tangled around everything else and getting stuck in various vital places.]
So, whilst fibrin has a critical function in blood clot formation, if you cannot break it down – once the bleeding has stopped, and repair has started – then you cannot break apart the blood clot either – at least not easily. And if you cannot break apart blood clots, then they are going to hang around – almost forever. Which is not a good thing, as you can probably imagine.
Which is where the enzyme known as plasmin comes in. Once bleeding has stopped, plasmin is ‘activated’ to slice – or lyse – the clot apart, and then it is gone.
How do you activate plasmin? Well, this process starts with another protein called plasminogen – which is incorporated into all blood clots as they form. Plasminogen then sits there doing nothing much. However, you can convert plasminogen into plasmin using another enzyme called tissue plasminogen activator (TPa).
TPa + plasminogen → plasmin → fibrin sliced apart ‘lysed’
Yes, step after step… after step. Tissue plasminogen activator is now made commercially and is colloquially known as a ‘clotbuster’. It is often given to people having a stroke to ‘bust’ the clot apart. [Unless you are having a stroke due to a bleed, not a clot, at which point given TPa would not be a great idea].
So, and keep holding on here, because I am going to get back to Vitamin C in a bit… so, what if you could not break up clots? At least, not so easily. Well, whilst this is a good thing if your blood vessels are cracking due to a lack of collagen, as the blood clot ‘plugs’ will need to last for a long time. At least until Vitamin C intake goes up, and collagen can be made.
However, if you do not have scurvy, having blood clots that resist lysis is a bad thing, because these clots are more likely going to hang around for ages. They will be stuck to blood vessel walls for quite a long time. Which means that they can become the focus for atherosclerotic plaques. [At least this is what happen if you believe in the thrombogenic hypothesis – which I do].
Now, getting back to Lp(a). How does it stop clots being broken down? Well, the(a) in Lp(a) stands for apolipoprotein(a). This protein is almost identical to plasminogen – the protein that is incorporated into all blood clots as they form. However, apolipoprotein(a) cannot be converted to plasmin by tissue plasminogen activator. Instead, it acts as a tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor. It jams up the active site of TPa.
So, deep breath. If you have a lot of Lp(a) around, you are in danger of creating difficult to shift blood clots. As outlined in the paper ‘Lipoprotein(a) as a modifier of fibrin clot permeability and susceptibility to lysis.’
‘We here provide the first evidence that elevated plasma Lp(a) levels correlate with decreased fibrin clot permeation and impaired susceptibility to fibrinolysis both in apparently healthy subjects and patients with advanced coronary artery disease. The relationship between Lp(a) and clots …are associated with extremely unfavourable clot properties12.’
Therefore, if you have a lot of Lp(a) in you blood, you will have blood clots with ‘extremely unfavourable clot properties.’ And so, you may end up dying of cardiovascular disease. Here is an article from the New York Times:
‘To millions of Americans, Bob Harper was the picture of health, a celebrity fitness trainer who whipped people into shape each week on the hit TV show “The Biggest Loser.”
But last February, Mr. Harper, 52, suffered a massive heart attack at a New York City gym and went into cardiac arrest. He was saved by a bystander who administered CPR and a team of paramedics who rushed him to a hospital, where he spent two days in a coma.
When he awoke, Mr. Harper was baffled, as were his doctors. His annual medical checkups had indicated he was in excellent health. How could this have happened to someone seemingly so healthy?
The culprit, it turned out, was a fatty particle in the blood called lipoprotein(a). While doctors routinely test for other lipoproteins like HDL and LDL cholesterol, few test for lipoprotein(a), also known as lp(a), high levels of which triple the risk of having a heart attack or stroke at an early age.’
You may think, why have I never heard of Lp(a). Fear not, you are not alone, as most doctors have never heard of it either. The surprising fact is that, although you may think you have never heard of Lp(a) you have. Because it is actually….
Drum roll, great suspense…
It is…. Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL). Yes, it is ‘bad cholesterol’ itself. The evil substance of doom itself. What a remarkable coincidence…
You think I am pulling your leg. I am, but only slightly. In fact, to be fully accurate, Lp(a) is actually low-density lipoprotein (LDL), with an extra strand of protein attached to it. And that protein is apolipoprotein(a).
Yes, apolipoprotein(a), the very protein that pretends to be plasminogen. The protein that inhibits blood clots from being broken apart. This is all a bit like a Sherlock Holmes story. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you…
‘The tragic case of mistaken identity.’
‘I put it to you sir, that when you looked at atherosclerotic plaques and saw LDL within them, you were actually looking at Lp(a) molecules, but you did not recognise them. Because you miserably failed to look for the apolipoprotein(a).’
Or, to switch metaphors in a heavy-handed manner to Cluedo.
‘It was Lp(a) wot done it, in the left anterior descending artery, with an apolipoprotein(a) molecule.’
Or, to put it more technical speak, from the paper ‘Quantification of apo[a] and apoB in human atherosclerotic lesions.’:
‘These results suggest that Lp[a] accumulates preferentially to LDL in plaques, and that plaque apo[a] is directly associated with plasma apo[a] levels and is in a form that is less easily removable than most of the apo B. This preferential accumulation of apo[a] as a tightly bound fraction in lesions, could be responsible for the independent association of Lp[a] with cardiovascular disease in humans13.’
Oh, my goodness, it is all so very complicated, is it not? Well, it is both complicated, and fascinating. You start looking at Vitamin C, and you end up comparing the molecular structure of plasminogen and apolipoprotein(a). Then you find that Lp(a) is, to all intents and purposes, LDL.
Now, let me see. Where does vitamin C properly fit into this tale?
Well, if you don’t have enough vitamin C, then you are more likely to end up with cracks in your blood vessels. These cracks will then be plugged by small blood clots, containing a lot of Lp(a). If you have a high Lp(a) level, then these small blood clots will be even bigger, and even more difficult to remove.
Which means that if you have a high Lp(a) level, it would be a splendid idea to ensure that you never become vitamin C deficient. Indeed, even if you do not have a high Lp(a) level it would be a splendid idea to ensure that you do not become vitamin C deficient. Because cracks in blood vessel walls are never a good thing. Ending up, potentially, as the focus for atherosclerotic plaques.
Linus Pauling, a famous double Nobel Prize winner, believed that ‘sub-clinical’ Vitamin C deficiency was ‘the’ cause of cardiovascular disease. He also believed that if everyone took enough vitamin C, cardiovascular disease would disappear.
Personally, I do not think it is ‘the’ cause of cardiovascular disease, but I do think that it is ‘a’ cause. That is, whether or not you have a high Lp(a) level. Of course, a high Lp(a) level is likely to make things far worse, were you to end up vitamin C deficient.
However, the vitamin C, cardiovascular disease story does not end here. Because vitamin C has many other critical functions that link back to cardiovascular disease in one way, or another. For example, it has a more general function in protecting endothelial cells from harm, and supports the integrity of the vascular system. Here, from the paper ‘Role of Vitamin C in the function of the vascular endothelium’:
‘Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, has long been known to participate in several important functions in the vascular bed in support of endothelial cells. These functions include increasing the synthesis and deposition of type IV collagen in the basement membrane, stimulating endothelial proliferation, inhibiting apoptosis (endothelial cell death), scavenging radical species, and sparing endothelial cell-derived nitric oxide to help modulate blood flow. Although ascorbate may not be able to reverse inflammatory vascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, it may well play a role in preventing the endothelial dysfunction that is the earliest sign of many such diseases.’
Supplementation to upper normal plasma ascorbate levels is clearly indicated in most diseases and conditions in which ascorbate is depleted. However, it is seldom a priority, because patients, physicians, and health authorities are unaware of the increasing evidence for multiple potentially important functions of ascorbate. With regard to the endothelium, it is worth emphasizing observations made more than 50 years ago that early scurvy generates endothelial disruption in guinea pigs, which resembles atherosclerosis and is fully and rapidly reversible with ascorbate repletion.14’
Yes, with regard to the last part about guinea pigs. Many years ago, a researcher deliberately made guinea pigs ‘scorbutic’ – the medical term for the state of vitamin C deficiency, a.k.a. scurvy. At which point they developed atherosclerotic plaques.
When the vitamin C was added back into their diet, the atherosclerotic plaque disappeared. [Unless you left it too long, in which case, the plaques remained]. Best animal experiment on atherosclerosis ever done – never repeated.
Having just said all of this. I do not believe that most of us, most of the time, are lacking vitamin C – to any degree. At least I do not think so. However, if we become infected – with almost anything – the requirement for vitamin C shoots up. Because Vitamin C gets burned up protecting the endothelium, and it also supports the immune system
‘The role of vitamin C in lymphocytes is less clear, but it has been shown to enhance differentiation and proliferation of B- and T-cells, likely due to its gene regulating effects. Vitamin C deficiency results in impaired immunity and higher susceptibility to infections. In turn, infections significantly impact on vitamin C levels due to enhanced inflammation and metabolic requirements.15’
Another key thing to know about vitamin C, again closely related, is that people with type II diabetes, and people who smoke, have reduced circulating levels of Vitamin C.
‘Although T2DM [type II diabetes mellitus] is not traditionally considered a risk factor for vitamin C deficiency, our research indicates that those with prediabetes or T2DM are more likely to have inadequate or deficient plasma vitamin C concentrations. This did not appear to be due to a lower dietary vitamin C intake, so dietary advice needs to emphasise the importance of consuming high vitamin C foods.16’
What links smoking, type II diabetes, and vitamin C? Here I am hypothesizing a little. What links them is that with smoking, and type II diabetes, the endothelium is under ‘attack’. High blood sugar levels damage the glycocalyx (the protective lining of endothelium), and so do the nanoparticles that enter the bloodstream if you smoke.
Here is a quote from the paper: ‘Loss of endothelial glycocalyx during acute hyperglycemia coincides with endothelial dysfunction and coagulation activation in vivo.’ (In vivo means in a real live person, not just in vitro – in a test tube). Jargon alert:
‘Hyperglycemia is associated with increased susceptibility to atherothrombotic stimuli. The glycocalyx, a layer of proteoglycans covering the endothelium, is involved in the protective capacity of the vessel wall. We therefore evaluated whether hyperglycemia affects the glycocalyx, thereby increasing vascular vulnerability…
In the present study, we showed that the glycocalyx constitutes a large intravascular compartment in healthy volunteers that can be estimated in a reproducible fashion in vivo. More importantly, we showed that hyperglycemic clamping elicits a profound reduction in glycocalyx volume that coincides with increased circulating plasma levels of glycocalyx constituents like hyaluronan, an observation that is consistent with the release of glycocalyx constituents into the circulation17.’
Looking specifically at smoking:
‘Vascular dysfunction induced by smoking is initiated by reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability and further by the increased expression of adhesion molecules and subsequent endothelial dysfunction. Smoking-induced increased adherence of platelets and macrophages provokes the development of a procoagulant and inflammatory environment.18’
Essentially, smoking and high blood glucose both damage the endothelium, which results in low vitamin C levels, as the endothelial cells burn through Vitamin C to maintain themselves. Ergo, fi you have type II diabetes, or smoke, you need more Vitamin C to maintain healthy levels….
Now, before I introduce you to far too many new and difference concepts – I did mention everything starts linking back together in completely unexpected ways – it is time to draw our little tale of Vitamin C together.
The first thing to say about vitamin C is that it is vital. I have only covered a few of the essential functions that it has in the human body. Those most closely related to cardiovascular disease. Importantly, it is almost impossible to cause harm by overconsumption. It is just about as safe to take, as anything can possibly be.
The next thing to say is that most of us, most of the time, probably have sufficient vitamin C intake, and require no supplements.
However, if you have a high Lp(a) level, then any damage caused by a lack of vitamin C will be amplified, dure the fact that Lp(a) sticks very tightly to areas of endothelial damage, making the resultant blood clot very difficult to remove. So, for those with high Lp(a) levels, I would recommend one gram of vitamin C a day – forever.
If you smoke, or have diabetes, the lining of your artery walls (glycocalyx and endothelium) are under constant attack from nasty substances – smoke nanoparticles and high blood glucose. This, too, will create ‘cracks’ in blood vessels.
In both situations Vitamin C is also used up more rapidly, trying to protect against this damage. So your vitamin C level is likely to be low. Which means that you too, should take one gram of vitamin C a day – forever. [Or you could try stopping smoking]
In addition, in many infections, the endothelium is under severe attack. Either directly from the microorganisms entering and killing endothelial cells (see under COVID19), or from the exotoxins (toxic waste products) released by any bacteria in the bloodstream.
The most severe endothelial attack occurs in sepsis (infection of the blood), where the exotoxins strip away the endothelium, resulting in widespread blood clotting (disseminated intravascular coagulation DIC). Which is the thing that, primarily, kills you with sepsis.
Whilst sepsis represents an extreme situation, it is still the case that if you are suffering from an infection, of any sort (gingivitis or periodontal disease) your requirement for vitamin C will shoot up. Which means that you should take as much Vitamin C as you can tolerate. Up to ten grams a day. I cannot take this amount due to the impact it has on my gastrointestinal tract. Loose, is the word. Very loose. Looser than loose.
But if you can tolerate it, Vitamin C will help to protect your endothelium. It will also boost the functioning of your immune system.
So, there we are then, vitamin C. My second favourite vitamin, after vitamin D. In the winter I take a gram a day. Along with my nine thousand units of vitamin D. Almost all medics will instantly dismiss this as ‘woo woo’ nonsense. I would tend to argue that this is because they know absolutely nothing about vitamins, or their critical roles in human physiology, and have never bothered to find out.
Pop quiz for your doctor, next time you see them. Ask them how a lack of vitamin C causes scurvy. What is the primary disease process? Watch them scrabble to bring up a Google search. Then ask them about Lp(a). What it is, what it does… I guarantee that silence will be the stern reply.
2: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjh.12959
3: https://www.nhs.uk/news/food-and-diet/the-new-guidelines-on-vitamin-d-what-you-need-to-know/
4: https://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20111004/low-vitamin-d-levels-linked-to-advanced-cancers#1
5: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6540771/
6: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23924693/
7: https://vitamindforall.org/letter.html
10: https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/new-prescription-drugs-major-health-risk-few-offsetting-advantages
11: https://academic.oup.com/emph/article/2019/1/221/5556105
12: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1538-7836.2006.01903.x
13: http://www.jlr.org/content/32/2/317.full.pdf
14: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3869438/
15: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707683/
16: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622757/
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
Bill Grant has two recent slide sets on vitamin D and cancer https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=12989 and the benefits of 60ng/ml (150nmol/L) or more 25-hydroxyvitamin D: https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=12988 .
Quraishi et al. 2014 found precipitously rising risks of post-operative and hospital acquired infection when 25-hydroxyvitamin D fell below 50ng/ml 125nmol/L. Links to this and other highly pertinent research articles are at: “What every MD, immunologist, virologist and epidemiologist should know about vitamin D and the immune system”: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/05-mds/ . This includes McGregor et al. 2020 who showed that Th1 lymphocytes from the lungs of hospitalised COVID-19 patients remain stuck in their pro-inflammatory startup program, never transitioning to their anti-inflammatory shutdown program – and the sole cause was lack of 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
B12, vitamin C – all these and more are important too.
Mr. Whittle,
Thanks so much for you blog about D3, calcifediol, and calcitriol. We ordered three bottles of Fortaro and are checking our calcifediol levels before dosing to get to our optimum levels and plan to follow that up with D3 supplementation to maintain those levels.
So, if you are aiming for 50 ng/ml of calcifediol
Let L = tested level of calcifediol in ng/ml or the equivalent mcg/Liter
Fortaro is dosed at 10 mcg of calcifediol per tab
Adult human bodies contain 5 Liters of blood.
Let X = the number of Fortaro tabs needed to reach the target level of calcifediol
50 ng/ml = L + (10mcg * X) / 5 Liters
Now let’s make the units equivalent…
50 mcg/Liter = L + (10 mcg * X) / 5 Liters
So X = ((50 – L) * 5) / 10 will give you the number of tabs needed to reach 50 ng/ml
If you want the general form, in case you have a different target level…
Let T = the desired target level of calcifediol in ng/ml or mcg/Liter
X = ((T – L) * 5) / 10
Simplifying further…
X = (T – L) / 2
So, if your target calcifediol level is 50 ng/ml and your tested calcifediol level is 20 ng/ml, then you would need to take 15 tabs of Fortaro to achieve your target calcifediol level.
Any readers who see a problem in my calculations, please signal.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. If you want medical advice, see a physician.
15 years ago I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. After looking after a severely disabled mother with MS. My mother was prescribed almost every pharmaceutical treatment available at the time and continued to deteriorate until her death. I was so lucky to have seen this. The reason being was that my first instinct after diagnosis was to never take a drug prescribed by a doctor. I spent hour after hour reading books and websites at the time and everyone of them kept coming back to Vitamin D3. So after persuading the doctor to test my blood for vitamin D (low) I proceeded to embark on raising my D3 levels. 15 years later i still take 10000iu a day along with K2 and Vit C, test blood once a year (175nmol/l) and have never had a relapse. Doctor still does not believe me and says I’m lucky. Also never been had a cold, flu or any other illness in 15 years. My teenage son and daughter caught COVID and i was the only one who tested negative (no vaccinations) Lucky.
Have you looked at the Vitamin D Protocol and Dr Cicero Coimbra? As per a previous post, I contacted Dr Coimbra about a friend who has PPMS and the protocol but sadly Dr Coimbra said my friend’s MS was too far advanced for there to be much benefit (he was paralysed from the neck down at that time). My friend’s GP refused to engage with any process using vit D as he did not believe the work of Dr Coimbra; the GP had nothing to offer in its place to stop the progression.
Dr Terry Wahls’s approach to treating her own MS might be of interest Alex https://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/
Lucky Alex, paraphrasing Arnold Palmer, the more you research the luckier you get. My mother died of MS in 1996 after 40+ years of the downward spiral. Back in those decades research was much more difficult. And tying in a comment from Linda Binns about how she always burnt until she stopped eating vegetable oils, well, Mum always burnt even though she wasn’t particularly fair, but one of the dietary mainstays for MS was no saturated fats, sunflower seed oil as a supplement three times a day, fish would have been the only source of D (no eggs, obviously!) and no sunlight. It also caused dementia for her. A real bastard of a disease.
MS is a horrible condition. Before moving house I used to visit a friend with PPMS and, as a trained masseuse, would massage his hands and feet, chat and sometimes feed him lunch as he was paralysed from the neck down. Because of his condition I started doing bits of research and came across Dr Coimbra; if only we had known sooner. Have you looked at his work?
No, but thanks for bringing him to my attention.
Gary Player as I recall?
I take one tablet Vitamin D3 ( 2000 iu) per day, should I be taking four or more to get to 9000 units per day? Seems a lot?
I don’t know exactly how much anyone should take. Better more, than less, in my thinking.
GrassrootsHealth.net is an excellent source of information on Vitamin D and the necessity of combining Vitamin D with other vitamins and minerals; Vitamin K and magnesium, amongst others. Nothing functions in the body alone. The research cited is fascinating.
I think you have a typo in your text: “I am l looking to get my levels above 50nmol/l, and keeping them there, if possible”. Surely you mean 50 ng/ml, n’est-ce pas?
After experimenting a bit, and a few tests, I take ~20,000 IU/week (two tablets) all year. The UK summer sun doesn’t make enough for me although I’m ‘Caucasian’. (Just imagine the effect of the English climate on BAME groups.) Sunshine *and* a supplement give me a serum level of ~150 nmol/ltr which I judge to be OK.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is said to take 6,000 IU/day or 42,000 IU/wk. He doesn’t seem to comment publicly. Funny, isn’t it.
A friend takes 4,000 IU/day. But he weighs 94 kg and I only weigh 64 kg. So that difference may make sense. Only two other friends I know take a ‘serious’ dose. Some others p*** around with amounts like 1,000 IU/day. Maybe they get a decent blood level, but Dr. John Campbell didn’t seem to do.
If we view vit.D supplements as a substitute for sunshine at latitude 52 N, and we eat a healthy diet, what’s the rationale for a vit.K supplement? I eat a lot of (grass-fed, raw milk) full-fat dairy which seems to be a good source of K2.
How much vitamin D3 to take? Simply obtain a vitamin D3 (25-hydroxy) blood test to see where you are. Most people will be well below 50 ng/mL (125 nmol/L). Start taking 2000 or 4000 iu per day for 3 months and then get retested. Some people will need to take more vitamin D3, some may not. You won’t know unless you test, and no two people are going to respond to supplements exactly the same way. Also, I do like the idea of taking vitamin K2 along with D3. A rough guideline would be 100 mcg of K2 with every 1000 iu of D3.
I recall that Dr Coimbra thinks that we should all take 10,000iu per day of D3.
But how much more? 1000 IU? 2000 IU? 5000 IU? 10,000 IU? Mooooahr? You want mooooahr?
And are you talking about D3 or calcifediol or D2 or calcitriol?
And should we get our levels tested? And what type of vitamin D should we get tested?
“Fauci breaks silence on vitamin D…”
Yeah, it’s old news…
Anecdotally, most people seems to supplement between 5000 and 10000 IU per day, often accompanied by 100 to 200 mg of vitamin K2.
I’ve done this for several years in Winter before moving to the tropics, never experienced any side effect, nor I’ve been sick (last time I went to a GP was more than 15 years ago, I was prescribed PPI in excessive doses and for en excessive period of time, causing me a series of issues that I fixes with a ketogenic diet and a better lifestyle over a few years), and when you are past your 50 I believe it’s a good achievement.
There is an incredible amount of various issues surrounding supplementing with D3/sun. GI uptake problems. Kidney problems. Liver problems. Those organs are involved in D metabolite conversion.
Then there are the groups at high risk for vit. D deficiency for various reasons. That’s a whole post by itself for each group.
If you still have various health issues (e.g., cardiac, CA, infectious disease) and never check your calcifediol level, you will never know the impact of your supplementation and how to fix your deficient D level.
Direct calcifediol supplementation is required for many groups. And especially for many of the people in ICU.
No, I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. But people might share my info with their medicos.
I did wonder about the 9,000 units. Did you calibrate that to achieve a certain serum concentration or is it just a lucky number? It just seems that people tend to go in increments of 5,000 once they decide low thousands are not sufficient.
My lucky number
some research shows that large oral doses simply do not make it to the bloodstream… it appears that a daily intake of about 200–400 mg of vitC ensures saturation of the blood in healthy individuals
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835439/
The trick is knowing whether you are healthy or not and what is coming down the tracks.
Not only do we not come with a manual, but neither does the environment we live in.
Dr.Steve Hickey and Dr.Hillary Roberts looked at those NIH claims in their book “Ascorbate…”. Roberts indicates their findings here:
“The NIH conclusions were not correct, however. Hickey and Roberts examined their experiments and found them to be full of errors. For example, the researchers had given a dose of vitamin C, waited until it had been excreted and then measured blood levels. Using this procedure, they found that increasing the dose did not greatly increase the blood levels. Instead of realising that this was because the dose had been excreted, the NIH claimed it was because the body was saturated, so higher doses were redundant. They then used white blood cells as a model for normal cells, to see how they absorbed vitamin C from their surroundings. These white blood cells are specialised to absorb vitamin C, even when supplies are low. If other body cells were similar to white blood cells, we would normally have a reserve of 40 grams in our bodies. In this case, given the proposed RDA of 200mg, it would take 2-3 years to fill a depleted body. This is demonstrably incorrect: the classic example is that James Lind’s sailors recovered from scurvy in a matter of days when they were given citrus fruits containing small amounts of vitamin C.
These mistakes were gross and unsupportable. In order to check their re-interpretation of the data, Hickey sent emails to the NIH, the Institute of Medicine and every scientist he could contact who was associated with the RDA, asking them to provide a reasonable scientific response to these errors. No-one was able to provide such a response. Since it is normal scientific practice to explain and defend your ideas, the hypothesis that people only need small amounts of vitamin C looks increasingly shaky.
Even the NIH’s subsequent data contradicts their earlier work. The NIH vitamin C group published a series of papers on vitamin C and cancer [Ann Intern Med, 140(7), 533-7.]. In these papers, they suggested that repeated doses of oral vitamin C would produce blood levels of at least 220 microM (a measure of the concentration) , which is three times greater than the 70 microM maximum “saturated” value they claimed in their RDA papers. While their own papers clearly showed that their low-dose claims were wrong, the NIH appeared not to notice.
…
A new scientific theory, called the dynamic flow model, explains all the observed responses to vitamin C in the literature. This model is described in the book “Ascorbate”, mentioned above. According to the model, people should ideally be in a state of dynamic flow, which means they should ingest more vitamin C than they need, in the form of divided dose supplements. The extra ascorbate flows through the body and is excreted in the urine. It is not wasted, however, as the excess acts as a reservoir when extra vitamin C is required. Dynamic flow is the closest we humans can get to restoring our physiology to how it was before we lost the ability to make vitamin C in our bodies, as most other animals still do.”
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/12154#5
P.S. I belatedly found out that the NIH publication criticized by Roberts and Hickey is much older that the one cited by you (which seems very solidly referenced).
Rule of thumb: Take 5,000 IU/d. If you’re ‘old’ add 5,000. Obese? Add another 5,000.
Malcolm
I see that there are doubts about Vitamin D being good for people with Atrial Fibrillation. The way the studies are reported reminds me of studies proving statins are wonderful.
Full disclosure
I do not suffer from AF
This is a video made just under a year ago by Ivor Cummins. It’s a discussion between David Grimes, David Anderson and Chris williams about vitamin D. https://youtu.be/BD_96ybTMNE There’s a type of vitamin D available in Italy, only over the counter, and not by prescription, but in this insane topsy turvy world it is available in the UK only by prescription and not over the counter.
Ivor Cummins also has a video ‘D is for Debacle’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3pK0dccQ38 which has a lot of info about Vitamin D and the good things it does for bodies. Also, in an earlier blog post, Dr. K referenced a study from Sweden on women that ‘sunbathed’. As I remember, the protective effect of having high(er) Vitamin D levels was on the order of NOT smoking.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24697969/ Dr. K MIGHT have ref’d the article in ‘Doctoring Data’… Also Suzanne Humphries has a couple of great vidoes on how Vitamin C works, and why. VitC also seems to mitigate the effects of Whooping Cough – she has info on that aspect of Vitamin C, too.
Having just read Doctoring Data, I can confirm he talks about that Swedish sunbather study in the book.
Ideally you should get your D levels checked to see what they are, then work up to the optimal level if they’re low. There’s a lab test for £29 (https://www.vitamindtest.org.uk/) which we did first to assess our exact levels, then we check every few weeks with a home test kit, about £7 or so (finger-prick test) which shows if your levels are low, optimal or even excessive, rather than the actual amounts in units. You can find those online easily (https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/vitamin-d-test-kit-deficiency-level-testing/).
As Dr K says, we’re all different and some of us may need higher doses than others – but don’t forget the vitamin K as well (unless you eat the kinds of cheeses, kefir etc that contain that) to ensure you don’t get calcium deposited in soft tissues.
Since I started taking K2 a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed that arthritis is now absent.
Hello theasdgamer – Re: “Since I started taking K2 a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed that arthritis is now absent”. Can you expand on that a little? Symptoms gone? – any confirmation from tests etc? I have an aunt who suffers from arthritis and am interested in any approach that may alleviate it – thanks Malcolm
No pain in my thumb joints from ordinary use. If I really test my thumbs, there’s still some pain.
Thank you for the reminder to take K2 every day. I intend to, but I’m pretty lax about it, and I have arthritis in right knee. So thanks for this!
Jane Jewell: You might also consider bone broth, for the glycine, a major constituent of collagen. For years I had a cup each day, with butter and salt (now just once in a while). I have no arthritis, and no joint problems (at 72).
Thanks for coming back on K2 and arthritis theasdgamer, much appreciated. Can I ask how much K2 you take? Also, there are several references to examples of arthritis being helped by earthing in the book ‘Earthing’ by Clinton Over, Stephen Sinatra MD and Martin Zucker, which I found a very worthwhile read. Thanks again, Malcolm.
You are welcome. I take 140 mcg K2/day.
‘Earthing’ sounds interesting.
Just looked the Earthingbook up. Mixed reviews. But some are convinced. I think I will look into it.
travelwriter73:- I watched this YouTube film “The Earthing Movie” first https://youtu.be/S4cW5zkMFig , which led to me buying the book, so maybe a good place to start. The book goes into much more depth though.
Since vit K aids in blood clotting, is it really prudent to recommend it to people who are at risk of some form of thrombosis due to existing conditions? Also, there are 2 forms of vit K – K1 and K2. K1 mostly found in dark green vegetables and K2 in fermented foods, such as kefir, cheese. If one’s regular diet contained both K1 and K2 sources, why would they take additional supplements to increase their blood-clotting capability?
I was wondering if the two types of Vitamin K actually have different properties. It seems I’m not alone:
“Some scientists have suggested that the roles of vitamins K1 and K2 are quite different, and many feel that they should be classified as separate nutrients altogether.”
In which case, it would be interesting to know whether K2 has any effect on blood clotting which we know K1 does.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-k2#functions
That isn’t how VK works.
More VK won’t impact clotting (unless someone takes warfarin or a related anticoagulant).
VK activates vitamin K-dependent proteins and once they’re activated, mor K can’t affect them.
In the coagulation cascade, some of these proteins are pro-coagulation and some are anti-coagulation in a sort of yin-yang relationship.
But it’s the VK-dependent proteins beyond those involved in the coagulation cascade that are often insufficiently activated and why many are K insufficient.
There’s more than just activating these proteins where VK is important and ingested VK of all forms can be cleaved in the gut to become VK3 (menadione), packaged in chylomicrons and transported via the lymph system to distant tissues where this VK3 is converted to a form of VK2, MK-4. MK-4 is an endogenously made hormone that binds SXR to affect expression of many genes.
In rodents, this MK-4 is extremely high in thyroid. Higher than other tissues.
In humans…who knows?
Current thinking about VK is that insufficiency is rare, but this based on coagulation which is a very low bar.
See Ames’ triage theory about VK to learn more.
Thanks for the test links anglosvizzera, have just ordered the lab test from vitamindtest, will be interesting to see the outcome. Re: ‘but don’t forget the vitamin K as well’, may I ask if you supplement vitamin K, and if so how much? – and any recommendation for a brand(s)?. Thanks, Malcolm
I eat a fair amount of Gouda, Camembert and Brie, as well as daily home-made kefir, so I hope I obtain enough K2. However, good quality supplements are available which combine D3 and K2 from Cytoplan, for example.
Thanks anglosvizzera.
The introduction of IU’s for its measurement makes an inflated impression.
Fancy that!
Dr Coimbra talks of 10,000iu of D3 per day for everyone but this is from memory and not sure if that depends on the starting levels.
The key to gauging individual D3 requirements is to get a D3 blood test and take it from there. From what I have read, the therapeutic zone is 120 -150 nmol/l. I take D3 all the year round, 2000 IU’s in the Summer and 4000 IU’s throughout the Winter. I maintain a level over 120 nmol/l at that dosage.
This was awesome. Thank you Dr. Kendrick. Normal does not mean optimal
Sent from my iPhone
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The trouble with many lab tests is that they use a range of levels for things based on what’s the most common range of levels in the population. Clearly if the whole population is deficient in something, say, for thyroid hormones, then that reference range is used as the yardstick to measure everyone. At least that’s how I understand it.
Hi Dr K.another great informative post.
I’ve just been told I’m having no more of my life saving b1w injections by a nurse oractictioner because my b1w levels are sky high.i replied of course they are and they need to be az I have pernicious anemia and functional b12 deficiency where the b12 jyst floats around my blood serum and I have to keep high levels in the hope that some of it trickles into the cells which it does,all confirmed by an endocrinologist report which she should be reading and also she is not supposed to check my blood levels after treatment has started,I’ve been having treatment for 2 years starting with loading doses then every 3 months at previous gps.she said in her 43 years of medicine she’s never heard of this.absolutely shocking if a medic is not keeping up to date with current guidelines.Im now having to self inject by buying b12 ampoules from Germany because of the lack of knowledge or interest maybe I should say of gps understanding of how critical these vitamins are to keep us alive and well.
Another Co factor is folate which is equally as important and causes horrendous illness when too low,most people could get enough from eating their greens of course but if your like me with pernicious anemia then your body is unable to process the vitamins from food due to the lack of intrinsic factor,low stomach acid doesent help with absorbing any vitamins which is why we pretty much lack everything but still our gps dump us so we just get sicker and sicker.
We desperately turn to self educating as best we can and in my case have private blood testing done to check our levels of everything,we need optimal not ranges and we need clinical judgements because one range maybe ok for him but not for me so the gps need to be able to use their clinical judgement and treat accordingly,this is just not happening.
I have 2 choices now try and fight them to get my shots reinstated or self inject as an amateur with no training I’m so ill without the b12 shots I have no energy to fight a warped system so the easy option for me is self treatment or I’ll die a horrible death before my time.Its a sad place for people trying to survive with no support,the health unlocked forums which the nhs recommends by the way,is full of sad sick people trying to support each other with these vit deficiencies because we have no where else to turn to and don’t have the strength to fight the establishment,we do have a pernicious anemia organisation who do their best but its a battlefield for them too so what chance do I have.
Thank you for highlighting this,there’s no cash fir big pharma in vitamins so it will never change they will always discredit their value in preference to their poisonous alternatives.take care and keep up with your vitamins and minerals.
You may try methylcobalamin, as this – I believe – is the active form. Some people cannot convert hydro or cyana to methyl. So they have almost no effect.
This is a bit like with T4, in hypothyroidism. The active thyroid hormone form is T3 (triiodothyronine). T4 (thyroxine) is converted to T3 within cells. Some people do not convert well, if at all, so giving them T4 does not work well, if at all. And, of course, the only form of thyroid hormone prescribed (by the mainstream) is T4. Anyone complaining that T4 does not help with their symptoms is dismissed. ‘Your thyroxine level is perfectly normal, what are you moaning about.’
With Vitamin B12, if you do not convert hydroxy-cobalamin or cyano-cobalamin to methylcobalamin then you will have a ‘normal’ B12 blood level, but you may well be clinical deficient. I will have to go and look this up again, because the metabolism of cobalamin is a bit complicated.
Oral has no impact ive tried in preference to injections,no one in their right mind wants to have these painful injections but most p.a sufferers can’t absorb via pills,I’ve also tried sublingual sprays and drops these have included methyl but can’t get any benefit it has to be b12 hydrocobalamin injections which are the norm here in UK and which are game changers for me and many other thousands of p.a sufferers.I think cyano is the American preference.
There’s a great book by a Dr Chandy on b12 deficiency,I wish it was available to all gps they would learn so much from him and hopefully our health issues would get more attention.Theres about 40 symptoms of b12 deficiency how can we hope to get help when a
gp says as soon as we open our mouth,” one symptoms only”.The neuro symptoms alone all incredibly debilitating.fingers crossed for me Dr k I want a reasonable chance at life thats all especially when these vitamins cost the nhs pennies,the teach diabetics to Inject to stay alive why are we treated so differently.
I have hypothyroidism and a gene defect ( DIO2 gene mutation) that affects conversion of T4 ( levothyroxine) to T3 and I have to buy my own T3 ( liothyronine ) from the internet. My Endo acknowledges I need it but will not prescribe due to cost, ( he advised that I buy my own) as I am now on a stable dose he has written to my GP multiple times to ask them to prescribe and they keep refusing because they don’t have anyone else on it and don’t know enough about it !!
I had very high levels of T4 on levothyroxine monotherapy, but my T3 was scraping along at the bottom of the range and I didn’t feel any better than before I started taking Levo.
What really scared the pants off me a few weeks ago was listening to a very eminent Professor of endocrinology who was adamant that too many people are treated for hypothyroidism in this country and that anyone who didn’t respond to levothyroxine treatment probably didn’t have a thyroid problem at all. He also didn’t think testing T3 was important and completely dismissed the role of the DIO2 gene mutation saying its role was insignificant. This person is at the forefront of formulating policy for thyroid treatment in this country, so it’s hardly surprising that so many people with hypothyroidism are so neglected.
SES, I too have to source my own T3. It used to be prescribed by a GP but was suddenly withdrawn as the nhs had never diagnosed me with hypothyroidism and, as I had been diagnosed by a private test, they didn’t believe that I was hypothyroid at all. What they were doing prescribing NDT, levothyroxine and T3 to me when they didn’t think I was hypothyroid is anyone’s guess. I also have Thyroid Hormone Resistance so have to take a high dose of T3 in order to get enough into my cells. I don’t like self-medicating but I prefer this to a slow death. (I have a copy of my medical records showing a T3 blood test at 0.01 (unfortunately no range mentioned) so it looks to me as if I was very low in T3; it was some years before I was diagnosed.)
Go for self injections then you are in control . They are not difficult to do 😀
I already do them Debra but hate having to do it with such a bad needle phobia.We should not have to resort to this
Thank you for writing us a text book on Vitamins Dr K. I really appreciate you 💖
My anecdote. Sometime around 1970 I had a bad cold. One of my students asked me if I had read Pauling’s “Vitamin C and the Common Cold”. I had not, so he lent me his copy to read. Knowing the star scientist that Pauling was I started taking a gram a day. I did not find much effect on the common cold but cuts and burn (as from chopping and cooking) really healed fast. And, even 50 years on I have no joint problems and remain flexible in movement – I am still a fast pianist. I had also picked up some evidence decades ago that it kept arteries clear of plaque, though I don’t remember the detail now. Thank you for the confirmation & mechanism.
That reminds me of the story of a relative of my ex husband who had a wound which would not heal following a tooth extraction. It is said that a skin graft was done and the original wound plus the place where the skin was removed would not heal. She had a high sugar intake and it was suggested she stop eating sugar – the wounds began to heal. I believe Yudkin showed how sugar interferes with the body’s ability to use Vit C …
Thank you once again for common sense, very informative information and the ability to make me laugh.
That was a good read, I read almost all of it, thank you. We may have enough vitamin C most of the time for the biological stressors which we encounter from time to time, but Tom Levy also emphasises the neutralising of poisonous substances. I’m not sure about his intentions from the statement “All toxins are oxidative and vitamin C can neutralise all toxins”. He goes on to say if you find a toxin which vitamin C can’t neutralise, send him an email.
The problem for me is toxins are defined as being produced by bacterial action. This doesn’t include the many poisonous chemical substances we live with today. It seems these chemicals are oxidative, and so vitamin C works, as it is an “anti-oxidant”. The confusion is possibly because of the definition of toxins, whereas many substances can be toxic without being correctly defined as a “toxin”.
Does some of that make sense?
Cigarette smoke is not strictly a “toxin” yet it is known a cigarette depletes vitamin C by about 35mg.
Brilliant article, as ever! As someone who had low levels of B12 ( but just in range) with lots of symptoms- only to be dismissed by both gp and haematologist, and also deficient in Vit D only to be told by the receptionist that they don’t treat you if your under 50 yrs, I now do my own research and treat myself . (I live in the Netherlands.)
Finding B12 was like finding the “elixir” of life for me, transformed my health within a very short time.
I now rate all doctors on their knowledge of vitamins and avoid those who are clueless.
A great book on B12 is written by Sally Pacholok.
Let’s not forget about over use of sunblock leading to vit D deficiency too.
Thank you Dr Kendrick for this article!
I have taken daily a sublingual B12 supplement for years just to be sure.
Great point about the sun-blocking chemicals called “sunscreen”. Perhaps one of the greatest (as yet) undiscovered calamities of modern science and medicine.
Sunscreen lotions and potions are filled with chemicals – many of which have been shown to cause cancer. This might explain why skin cancers have been increasing worldwide, despite the huge increase in the use of sunscreen!
Humans have been enjoying the sun for hundreds of thousands of years – and our bodies and skin types have adapted to the amount of sun given to us. Lighter skin farther from the equator – darker skins closer to the equator. It’s called human evolution and adaptation.
So don’t mess with Mother Nature. When outside, don’t use sunscreen! Wear a hat, wear long-sleeves (see photos of the bedouins in the deserts of the world), or simply go into the shade when you feel your skin getting warm – and know that you are getting the best form of Vitamin D, the natural way.
Danny, have you got a reference for the cancer causing chemicals in sunscreen?
Or you could defer sunscreen until after your vit. D exposure.
In 2008, Barry Groves wrote “Trick or Treat” in which he wrote about our diets, vitamins and described how most skin melanomas appear where the sun don’t shine ! Also, how bad sunscreens are. One paragraph says:
“ More importantly, however, may be the fact that most chemical sunscreens contain up to 5% of benzophenone or its derivatives, oxybenzone or benzophenone-3, as their active ingredient. Benzophenone, used in industrial processes to initiate chemical reactions and promote cross-linking,18 is one of the most powerful free radical generators known to man. Moreover, benzophenone is activated by ultraviolet light.”
Wayne
And then there’s all the anecdotal evidence that cutting out vegetable oils from your diet also reduces your chance of sunburn. I can attest to that.
I second that. In my case it was cutting out seed oils and carbs, bit I went from a erythema prone, sun scared man to a sort of a lizard, sunbathing (under the tropical sun) at midday without burning at all.
As an amateur student of Pauling/Rath theory for some years, plus Dr Thomas Levy, (plus Dr Malcolm Kendrick) – I was really hoping things would go this route. I tested my Lp(a) a few years back and immediately started on a Vitamin C regime (3g Ascorbic Acid, 3g Lysine, .5g Proline -daily). In South Africa there is a product called “ColesterolEase” which contains these in a sachet – along with a few other goodies like Folic Acid etc. Its quite a good seller in fact. It was developed by a heart disease sufferer – Johan Wilken – not the medical fraternity (surprise!). (I have no links to this product other than being an enthusiastic consumer. It does wonders for preventing or curing hangovers too!!! https://www.cholesterolease.com/
My vote for next amazing would be Vit K2….it’s role in calcium management and allocation…specifically i.r.o. IHD
Do artificial vitamins (as opposed to the ones in food) actually work? I hope so because I spend more than enough money on them !
There is some debate on this. Many vitamins are fat soluble, and may not digest particularly well if you take them alone. If consumed within the foodstuffs that they are normally found in, they may be absorbed better, and suchlike. Some of the vitamins you can buy are the wrong forms/formulations. There are, for example, many different formulations of vitamin D. Some of which are not much good. I go for vitamin D3. Others may disagree.
I take a sublingual spray of d3/k2 and find using high doses it bypasses my gut and I’m able to absorb that particular one very well and it helps keep my levels at a decent range,the k2 works with the d3 and ensures there’s no high levels of calcium floating around the blood it goes straight into the bones where its needed.This is my layperson understanding of the value of taking those combinations.
Sorry fat finger syndrome should have been a thumbs up Dr k
As vitamin D is fat soluble. I suggest the gel capsule form with olive oil.
I find the absorption is better than the tablet form. I take 4000iu daily all year. And of course get an annual blood test for the D3 level. No point taking anything without knowing your level. Adding K2 mk7 alongside is what I suggest.
Could you please share the brand of vitamin D3 and C you specifically take? As you say, some are better than others in terms of formulations… Thanks. And thanks for all your blogs over the last 18 months.
I get most of mine from a company called Cytoplan that has many food-state vitamins/minerals making them more bioavailable. They grow a kind of brassica in a hydroponic solution that contains the nutrients and make the supplements from that. They’re very highly recommended by nutritionists.
My concern is that many vitamins are now made in “low cost” countries like China and India. I remember seeing a story that 95% of the world’s vitamin C is produced in China. Aside from the problem that global supply chains are now going wonky (better stock up on vitamins) there is the question of safety and quality control. What’s actually in that pill? Hopefully what is said on the label, but who really knows.
One of the companies is DSM (Dutch State Mines), who also manufacture vitamin C in Scotland.
Excellent reading! Thanks for taking the time to share this.
Thank you so much Dr. Kendrick for such an interesting and scientifically backed explanation. I’m off to the pharmacy!
Excellent post!!! Thank you
Brilliant – I almost understood it all (I think!). The human body is a wonderful thing. Thanks for the insight.
Just in case your blood pressure drops too low here is something to revive you.
I think he makes some very valid points about vitamins, and I know you’ll enjoy his inevitable criticism of the pharmaceutical industry.
Happy reading
Sent from my iPhone
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I gather that there are links between B12 and stomach cancer, which has a high prevalence in Japan. Interesting that their lower bound is a lot higher than ours also.
Just checked the NHS provided D3 I received as being extremely vulnerable : equivalent to 400iu ! I asked why it did not come with K2 Mk.7 as recommended on a thyroid forum but received no reply. Why is Vit.C in grams?
Why is vitamin C in grams? Possibly because it isn’t a vitamin, a vit(al)amin(e). Vital yes, amine no.
(Sorry if this sounds nitpicky, but I have to post something to be able to tick the “notify me of new comments” box).
A lot of sites I’ve seen recommend you take vitamin K along with vitamin D. Do you recommend this as well?
Yes absolutely re Vit K …. BUT be sure it is the Vit K complex with K2 M-4 and M-7. Life Extension sells this on Amazon, and as I recall the M-7 component is critical in channeling the calcium to your bones, teeth etc and not into your soft tissues, such as arteries.
Malcolm
Very very interesting.
Firstly, congratulations, no mention of COVID.
Secondly on Lp(a), I always think our bodies are finely regulated affairs, and that if unmedicated you have high LDL then for some reason your control system finds that you need it. Is it the same with Lipoprotein a? I understood that the levels are determined genetically, whatever that means. Moreover LDL is calculated so presumably the Lp(a) is usually bungled in with it?
Great article. I’ll keep taking my supps. Maybe a few follow up words on zinc and magnesium please.
Because of ‘ginger skin’ inherited from my ginger father, I have tended to use sunblock for preventing the pain of sunburn, until 3 years ago when I found that I was (asymptomatically) vitamin d deficient. I now take supplements and hardly ever cover up, except for my bald head. Re supplements of vitamins in general, it is not impossible to overdose, but it is very hard, so I never discourage it, as it is safe in the ways most people take them.
Concerning doctors ‘not keeping up’, that is where guidelines come in. Most GPs haven’t the time or interest to read about everything in detail, and have to rely on guidelines. It is only when interested doctors look in detail at the evidence behind guidelines that they find that so many are not evidence based eg nutritional guidelines especially for diabetes and heart disease, treatment thresholds for hypertension, statins for primary prevention of heart disease etc. If you want to attack erroneous guideline, attack those whose responsibility it is to write them, not those who follow them to save time so that they have more for dealing with patients. I am a 63 year old GP, working part time, and do not have to worry about revalidation until age 67 when I probably will have retired. I use a lot of my spare time looking at the evidence behind guidelines of things that interest me, and this translates into my work when I stop statins, unnecessary anti-hypertensives,( as well as many other drugs), and try to persuade diabetics to go onto high fat low carbohydrate diets. My younger colleagues are frightened to behave like this for fear of not following the guidelines and getting in to trouble. Easy for me to be a maverick, with my mortgage paid and my pension in the bank, much harder for them.
I should say though, with my conspiracy theorist hat on that QOF and guidelines do seem to benefit the pharmaceutical industry in a massive way.
Dr Mark Heneghan, you have described my feelings entirely. At age 74 next week, ( if I make it to Sunday)I have long since retired from the NHS as a Registered Nurse. Had I been of working age I would certainly have had to leave under the current guidelines for nutrition and medication, which are bonkers in a lot of cases. QOFs ( deal or no deal, or is it Bingo ) makes me so reluctant to inform my GP of my stats. Let’s face the truth here….the parameters for B/P, diabetes, BMI and the rest of things that are measurable, keep tightening up to the extent we will all soon be classed as unhealthy morons, unable to live independent of Big Pharma.
Good on you, and I hope your sensible approach to medicine will rub off onto your younger colleagues, who, unfortunately, are being forced to work to a regime unbefitting their profession. ( as are Nurses).
Fingers crossed for a happy birthday! Hope you have a lot of butter and cream!
Mark Heneghan: Oh how I wish you were my GP!!
Mark. I’ve made it, thankyou! Baked my own birthday cake….very nutritious and served with thick cream! Of course it contains excellent ( camouflaged) bits and pieces, and I have to endure the quips from those who love me as to whether it contains ‘Marmite with a little aubergine and liver’. As if I would…..
Happy birthday Jennifer enjoy your yummy cake minus the marmite hopefully lol
I am a PN wish I could work with a GP like you, I’ve got at least another 17 years of this pharmaceutical push to deal with. In a balanced way I talk to patients about statins, promote LCHF and promote vitamin use, it’s a hard slog but rewarding most of the time.
On obesity control
Satiety comes from leptins, doesn’t it? And consuming enough proteins produces leptins, right?
So we need fat (for vitamins) and protein in our diet. But the potential is there for too many calories unless we add enough fiber to bind some of the fat and carry it through undigested.
Mark Heneghan, love your approach, great, keep up the good work.
Thank you Dr Kendrick. A patient’s family went to court because they wanted him to get a cheap drug and vitamins, to help treat a disease we hear a lot about in the media, at present. Judge said no. The doctor should not be forced to prescribe treatment he think is not appropriate.
You forgot to mention that the patient died. So sad and completely unnecessary.
I read a report about a case in the US where the family of a hospitalised patient obtained a court order to force the hospital to administer ivermectin. The patient started to improve but the hospital went to court to stop the ivermectin. I find this totally bizarre. Why would a hospital go to court to stop a medication? I thought that doctors were supposed to save lives and treat the sick. Needless to say the patient died.
Penny, because the hospital got paid $13,000 for a covid sick patient, and $39,000 if they got them on a ventilator and they died.
Sounds nefarious but in my area all usual hospital business has again been suspended. So…
” Hospitals and doctors do get paid more for Medicare patients diagnosed with COVID-19 or if it’s considered presumed they have COVID-19 absent a laboratory-confirmed test, and three times more if the patients are placed on a ventilator to cover the cost of care and loss of business resulting from a shift in focus to treat COVID-19 cases.”
as for Ivermectin use…https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01535-y?fbclid=IwAR2-9LwLd7ksR8ZstjUo8BGYY6_Lt6ZytYH90Ud-WwH8NJHUV0kPJpXEKE4
from above link…
→Relying on low-quality or questionable studies in the current global climate presents severe and immediate harms
…when this evidence was subjected to a very basic numerical scrutiny it collapsed in a matter of weeks. This research has created undue confidence in the use of ivermectin as a prophylactic or treatment for COVID-19, has usurped other research agendas, and probably resulted in inappropriate treatment or substandard care of patients.
So informative, thank you Dr Kendrick.
Over a number of years I conducted a (determined) self-experiment to ascertain whether red wine and peanuts contain a sufficiently high level of vitamins C and D. The results were inconclusive so I now take medium / large quantities of supplementary C and D in addition to the wine and nuts. Just to cover all bases you understand.
“Consumers buying products from these firms are in some cases entrusting their health and safety to people with rap sheets for crimes involving barbiturates, crack cocaine, Ecstasy and other narcotics, as well as arrests for selling or possessing steroids and human growth hormone” So, rather like GSK and Pfizer etc …
Can enzymes like serropeptase dissolve fibrin?
Thank you Dr Kendrick….you are a marvel at getting your messages across.
I am a great defender of added supplementation of vitamins B12 C and D., despite being constantly told they just produce expensive urine.
A research doctor in diabetes dismissed my concerns that Metformin 2g daily was the likely cause of my B12 level being 362. Nonsense I was told, the level is fine. So, I stopped the Metformin. I introduced B12 supplements, so cannot give credit to either one or the other when the level raised to 645.
So, I described to the endocrinologist about strange feelings in my feet….I was informed that it is because I am diabetic. My feelings are that the low B12, due to excess Metformin has caused the nerve damage….a bit of a chicken and egg situation really. Anyway….no more Metformin for me.
This week my lovely neighbour brought me 100lbs of cooking apples for free. What a gift. We have been flat out processing them and enjoying fresh, raw juice. Using the pulp to combine with seeds to safely dehydrate at a low temperature into crispy discs that will provide many vitamins and minerals ( including vitamin C), over the winter.
Yes, vitamins B12 C and D are essential. And despite all the hoo ha about over consumption of fruit juice, all I can say is that this week my blood glucose levels have been the best for months. Raw juices should not be confused with the industrially produced, sugar-laden stuff on the market.
Off now to collect large lumps of fresh suet from the butcher, from which we will gently extract gorgeous, nutritious dripping for our fabulous home made chips….no fries cooked in ultra processed, dangerous seed oils for us!
Jennifer, re: ‘I am a great defender of added supplementation of vitamins B12 C and D., despite being constantly told they just produce expensive urine.’
I read somewhere (Patrick Holford maybe?) that dogs, cats (and presumably other animals) excrete excess vitamin C in their urine. Suggesting that having vitamin C in urine is a good thing as it shows there is a sufficient amount in the system. Would be interesting to know what Dr K’s thoughts are on this.
Hello again Jennifer:- Re: “This week my lovely neighbour brought me 100lbs of cooking apples for free. What a gift. We have been flat out processing them and enjoying fresh, raw juice. Using the pulp to combine with seeds to safely dehydrate at a low temperature into crispy discs that will provide many vitamins and minerals ( including vitamin C), over the winter.” Can you point me to any useful links re how you go about processing your apples, and using the pulp to create the discs? My brother has become very interested in making his own apple juice, too late here for this year, but could be great for next – thanks Malcolm
Hello Malcolm. Thankyou for asking, and I hope I can help. For years I have accumulated gadgets to help me prepare food in a safe way which minimises loss of nutrients from raw foods. The equipment I use is generally sourced from USA, but available from British importers. I use UK juicers, who help with information on ‘how to’ advice. In the past I used cheap juicers, but found them inadequate and flimsy. I use an old Champion electric juicer, which is so powerful that the juice is produced quickly, directly into lemon juice to minimise oxidation. It easily juices very hard veggies such as beetroot. The juice keeps in a closed glass container for a couple of days. I also purchased a Green Star processor, ( does so much more than juice), which is another very powerful machine that extracts the juices in a manner that does minimal damage to the fruit/ veg nutrients by keeping the pulp cool. Once the juice is extracted by either machine, I mix the pulp with a selection of seeds and spices, as takes my fancy. I then use a dehydrator to completely dry out the mixtures, at a low temperature so the food remains uncooked, and nutrient dense. The crispy discs last for months. Now, the problem could be that these items are very expensive. But, there are instruction manuals included with recipes and methods of production. Web sites( I generally Google the companies I mentioned above) and then I get carried away by linking across to other companies, which can be helpful.
The machines have paid for themselves over the years because fruit and veg juices are on the dear side, and we know exactly what goes into our drink. Because I use the fibre-rich pulp, I am making full use of the complete fruit/veg with nothing wasted. Hope this helps.
Hello Jennifer – Thank you for coming back to me, plenty for me to look into there! I’ve started by looking at the UK Juicers website. My brother has a ‘big birthday’ coming up next year, I’m thinking a contribution to a juicer or dehydrator might make for a suitable gift for him……Thanks again, very helpful – regards Malcolm
How do the elements involved know their part in a whole? – or the Inuit?
Pathogenic theory (Theos) posits fragmentation and conflict as its ‘normal’ such that All the king’s horses and all the king’s men fight for the narrative by which to officially model ‘wholeness or function’ under their Say So!
Wizards of Oz have ways to shout out any other fitting thought that of itself would rise to restore wholeness to a state of functional expression of a wholeness that of course precedes any attempt to fix it.
The complex of biology in chemical terms is a modelling of states that are always in flux. Its very difficult to find what you are not looking for, and so fitting fragmentary flux together again is firstly an artefact of the modelling by which it is identified as parts, each unto itself to play many parts in an ungraspable but already living organ that is itself assumed to a part in a larger puzzle set in mortal consequence.
Electrical activity underlies all things as charge domains, patterns of order and resonance that align instantly as a whole field of fluctuating information and energy exchange. Blood and cell gel is living water. But what then is the breakdown of the capacity to support and carry the felt function of life?
Grasping from a sense of lack, as a claim to possession, defended as a face set in Say So!. Even this is a relationship of charged domain – excepting to seek completion by getting from others, while cannibalising itself as a stuck cycle of lack-driven compulsion. Closed systems deplete as non living nodes unless reintegrating to the terrain of which they of course cannot be truly apart from.
As for vitamin supps, synthetic or naturally derived, bioavailability, or fittingness is part of wholeness in function. When we take out what we call active ingredients we leave out the ‘junk’ which eventually is discovered to have informational qualities hitherto unrecognised. Seeking magic health from outside will reflect an unowned or ‘faced’ away from sense of self and life, perhaps in regard to relational conflicts in our formative years that set recognisable patterns of strategy for survival – but we are not there now.
I’m not sure about ascorbic as a persistent oral intake in regard to our gut biome – which is so active in adaptive transmutations but given little room in our mousetrap models, except to sell probiotics. Perhaps buffered C is better in that regard?
Some say supping D depletes A and needs K2. Imbalances may be adaptively worked around so as not to show up immediate symptoms. By the time things ‘fall apart’ the actual cause is forgotten amidst the drama at the crime scene.
To persist in a dead end is to become deadened.
But to recognise a futile or self-defeating pattern of thought and behaviour and release it is to suddenly reconnect with a greater life that was here already but diversioned from in what we call wilful, but which actually represents a loss of true willingness to a set mind.
Inuit or I knew it! is our innate or indigenous being.
Why journey into dead ends only to come home?
To arrive at our starting place and know it for the first time.
Thanks for the post
“Sufficient” levels of nutrients are enough to ward off obvious deficiency diseases, while leaving enough of a market for pharmaceuticals for the non-obvious ones.
Thank you!
Excellent!
Cardiologist Dr. William Davis is very good on vit D – enter his name and vit D on youtube and you’ll get some handy dandy 5 to 10 min presentations.
Here’s a link to one of several:
Addressing dosaging, he states there is no one size fits all recommendation – we’re all different.
I think he might disagree with Dr. Kendrick’s comment “In the summer you don’t need to take any at all” – at least for the elderly: at about 7 minutes, he states he’s tested tanned, elderly people and they’ve had low levels. It looks like the ageing process reduces our ability to produce vit D through sunlight.
A blood test would be the starting point and then you can pick your definition as enumerated by Dr. Kendrick above to ascertain how well off you are.
A lot easier to tell with vit C – the C flush/bowel tolerance will let you know or as Dr.Kendrick puts it: “Loose, is the word”.
I wonder what health horrors are going on within my body some days when mega dosing (i.e. double figures of vit C) and not even a rumble – the body seems to be scavenging every molecule of vit C to heal or deal with something.
Maybe the elderly tanned folks can’t make Vit D from sunlight as they don’t have enough cholesterol in their skin cells?
Do you think this is because they are on statins or because of their age?
It’s a good point
I also wondered whether statins are having a detrimental effect on “vitamin” D production…along with the increase in dementia etc. Cholesterol is absolutely necessary in the body and its functioning, apparently 25% of the body’s cholesterol is in the brain.
I was surprised that Dr. Davis didn’t even address calcifediol for supplementation.
Yay! Great article.
Just one minor point, and I doubt anyone here would even consider it, but please DON’T try & pick up mercury with your fingertips! Incredibly dangerous.
Hah, you’d think. My cousin got mercury from a broken thermometer (her stepmother was a nurse) and she had been playing with it. When I came to visit we both played with it. I found it fascinating and ran it all over my hands for God knows how long. We both lived.
I should have added there – we were both about 12! As far as I have been able to ascertain, it is more dangerous to some people than others, although which ones I don’t know!
Its ok through a needle though, I’m told.
A remarkable amount of knowledge given to us today. Thanks Malcolm.
Really great blog, thank you
On Fri, 22 Oct 2021 at 07:49, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 22nd October 2021 Studying cardiovascular > disease for over thirty years can take you to some very interesting and > seemingly strange places. Places where I never expected to find myself. > Connections appear where you least thought they would be, and” >
Hi, I wondered if you had tried sodium ascorbate. The longer you take it the greater amounts you can take. So my husband with his rapid digestion could take very little 20 years ago but this week he has had a bug and he could tolerate 20g per day. He never fully came down with the bug, of course.
My youngest at age 3 had chicken pox. He was on approx 20 grams per day. The rash happened, then the blisters came up and then receded without fully forming, all by day 4. We were relieved.
The kids have also been exposed to pertussis as we lived in NZ and yearly whooping cough is normal.
Thanks Sara, Linlithgow
Sent from my iPhone
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A tad complex for me but of relevance. ‘Canceling the Spike Protein’ (and Vit C)
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v17n24.shtml
DaveG, thank you for posting this. My partner had a ‘booster’ shot a week ago and, fortunately, has had (so far) no adverse effects, nor from the previous two jabs.
She is a 75 y.o. cancer survivor and took the ‘vaccine’ because she considers herself vulnerable, due to having had lymph glands removed.
Having read and viewed information about micro blood clots developing over time, and the risks from spike proteins should she be exposed to covid, I am not so reassured about the prospects for her continuing health. I acquired some Ivermectin about a couple of months ago, but she won’t take it as a precaution. I might add that I bought it with her in mind, as I do not consider myself vulnerable, not having had a coronavirus, or indeed anything else wrong with me, within the past 10 years. Nor have I visited a GP in all this time.
Going back to the ‘Canceling the Spike Protein’ article, I was particularly interested in the section about red blood cells folding, in order to negotiate constrictions, and the rouleaux effect.
It felt like a strange coincidence because, only in the past few days, I have been revisiting a subject that I became interested in a few years ago but didn’t pursue, which is the nature of water. Dr Gerald Pollack (amongst others) has studied the ‘structure’ of water, and how it behaves in contact with hydrophilic surfaces. Here is a Ted talk he has given https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9UC0chfXcg during which he explains how what he calls ‘EZ’ water is important to this folding process, as well as intracellular dynamics.
In the interview here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Sy1SZNebk he reiterates this work, as well as discussing the work of others, who profess to be able to ‘imprint’ information into water, including that of a drug, and to have the effects of that drug when the water is consumed. Like homeopathy, it seems.
There is much information out there about ‘structuring’ drinking water, and how it can not only improve one’s health, but prevent scale build-up, and optimise plant growth. I did some experiments in the past couple of days using one of the ‘restructuring’ techniques, and am now so convinced, with the vast improvement in my tap water, that I am going to construct a plumbed-in unit.
Sorry for dropping this on you, but it may be interesting to (non-skeptical) others here, and might get some interesting discussions going!
This may be of interest Sticky https://www.implosionresearch.com/
Hi Malcolm. Yes, it seems that one of the ways of structuring water is by creating a vortex. And there are others, using electrical and/or magnetic fields.
In fact, for the past 20 years or so I have been using a device called a Scalewatcher, which does work, at least to the extent of reducing the limescale. However, it only works effectively where there is water flow, so doesn’t prevent a kettle from scaling. And I still get scummy tea.
I live in a hard water area, and the Scalewatcher seems to have protected the heating elements in my washing machine and my hot water tank from scaling up. The evidence for this is my 20- year-old washing machine, which has never gone wrong in all this time (without Calgon™!) Then about 10 years ago I replaced my combination hot water tank (I live in a flat) as it had begun to leak. When I took out the old heater, it was clean.
This is the one I am making: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhIohRHoNiw
I have ordered the filter housing, and more marbles, and have a couple of 3/4″ X 1/2″ bushes to connect it. It seems that opposing vortices are formed in the water flowing through the marbles. My experiments using 50 marbles in a funnel, and the water passing through six times, demonstrated a significant improvement in the quality of the water.
Since I was only able to condition a small amount (about 1.5l) each time, using jugs, I made a support for the funnel and used a couple of buckets. Surprisingly, despite still only six passes, the quality of the water is even better. Any tea drinker would appreciate not just the cleaner colour, but a remarkable improvement in taste.
Whenever I have been in Devon, I have marvelled that the water soaking the tea bag in my cup looks like red wine. It’s not quite that good, but it is a massive improvement.
Yes!! When I moved to a house in Hampshire in 1999 a free leaflet came from the local water board with our telephone directory recommending Scalewatcher. I immediately bought one and within weeks there were “element-shaped” lumps of limescale appearing in my washing machine filter. Our gas boiler, which the engineer had told us at the annual service would only last 10 years max, went on for about 25 years before my husband sold the house…maybe it’s still going strong? As for the kettle, I always use a jug water filter for any drinking water so that deals with the limescale. Where we lived in Hampshire the water is very hard.
So when I moved to Somerset, as my ex husband had omitted to remove the Scalewatcher from the old house, I found one on eBay and it’s working perfectly! Amazing device.
anglosvizzera, you are the only other person I have encountered with a Scalewatcher! I think mine cost about £130, which was a lot of money for me at the time, but I imagine it saved me much more in w/m repairs and electricity.
I just found this site, which has some interesting info about structured water: https://belifewater.com/structured-water/
They make industrial units as well as domestic ones, and are bold enough to describe what sceptics might dismiss as ‘woo-woo’ structuring techniques.
Hello Sticky – I’ll have a look at that YouTube video tomorrow, and have a look at Scalewatcher – thanks Malcolm
When I lived in a hard water area I fitted two magnetic devices to the water pipes. Fitting meant tightening the screws once the magnetic devices were wrapped around the pipes. They worked a treat. No more visible calcium deposits around the sink and the 27 year old washing machine was still working well when I passed it on to a friend but I cannot remember the name of these devices and have no need for it in Scotland. I was against adding water softeners to the water supply.
Yes, at the time, I remember looking at magnetic ones that clamped to the pipe, but decided to go with the Scalewatcher, which cost a lot more. I’m pleased to hear that yours worked, because I seem to think that Scalewatcher claimed that their system was better than the magnetic type. It would be good to see a comparison of these types of devices for effectiveness, though.
You’re welcome…
While I did not fully understand all your article, I was relieved to note that I have been taking vit c and vit d for years, and still had a heart attack in April. I am now a lot better and as well as walking about a mile a day attend a quite intense exercise class put on but the cardiac rehab team in Worcestershire. I found your article v interesting, and learned quite a lot from it. As a retired engineer I like t read technical articles outside my own field. A few years ago my wife ( who was a nurse) worked for a local GP practise, and used to bring me back the lancet and other medical mags. What shocked me was that I was the only person to read them, they were pristine when I got them! The more insight we have in to the way we work the better, so thank you for your articles.
John Forsyth
Doc, I enjoyed this post.
Regarding the definitions of normal and clinically low ranges, do you have any thoughts on thyroid hormones? This seems to be an area of controversy, with lots of people claiming they have improved their health by improving their clinically “normal” thyroid ranges.
Thanks
“exposing your skin for an hour or so.”
Things get murky quickly.
In the summer midday sun where I live, I burn after 10 minutes of exposure of my back where I lack pigment.
Fair-skinned people require a shorter time of exposure than darker-skinned people for optimal vit. D production. Someone who is very dark may require three hours to get the same vitamin D production as can be produced by someone who is fair who is exposed for ten minutes.
In the fall, it takes double the time of exposure in northern latitudes to get the same vit. D production as in the summer. Maybe 6 hours for someone who is very dark to get optimal exposure!
I am very fair skinned and used to burn very quickly. However, I have found that since I stopped using vegetable oils I no longer burn.
Thanks for your thoughtful post Malcolm.
I make sure my D level is approx 120 (aust value) and each day I take 1600 sustained release vit C with bioflavenoids. I throw in a bit of zinc too. K2 and mag too. One can only hope my immune system is very good.
Also my hospital is doing blood tests on every hospital patient for d dimer and procalcitonin. No one can tell me why? Can you shed any light on it it does have something to do with covid. It does not show up on any test results only the C worksheet.
Anne Lucas: The d dimer test is used to detect micro clotting, not detectable by any other test, as I understand it. A physician in British Columbia, Canada, found micro clotting in 62% of his ‘Ronavax patients.
Hi Malcolm
What a great read, many, many thanks for that. I do confess to skipping some of the more scientific jargon but the message certainly got through and will definitely be passed on.
I have one question regarding the level of vit C that you recommend, which is 10gm daily. Now, I take 1000mgs a day which I thought was sufficient (basing that, I realise, on the same logic that you mention – my guesswork combined with the levels I could buy), in fact I thought I was taking a reasonably high dose. But it seems I am not. If I ever feel run down or sense the beginnings of ‘something’ starting, then I may take an extra one each day. Is the level you suggest for those who know they have certain conditions (diabetes II or smokers), or should we all be taking this all the time?
Much gratitude for all you do.
Regards
Barbara
________________________________
Barbara: Malcolm recommended 1 gram not 10.
Thank you for this timely article Dr. Kendrick.
Do you think it is possible that a lowering of serum ascorbic acid might, on its own, cause vascular damage and start the subsequent clotting cascade, due to the ‘fragility’ of RBCs leading to epithelial damage, when they are starved of dehydroascorbic acid?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4740302/#!po=6.25000
Great informative post, if not a little “complicated” for the majority. Where Vit C is concerned, have you checked out what Dr Suzanne Humphries says on the matter? She recommends 25mg/kilo bodyweight/day to remain healthy. If, as you mention, you smoke or are unhealthy, then you need more, and that there is a simple way to work out what your need is, which is by working out your “bowel tolerance”. Personally I take 2000mg/day, increases it at the 1st sign of any issues.
I have battled medics for decades over just this issue and so have experienced first-hand what you say – a vitamin D level of 20 and B12 level of 1117 have always been considered ‘fine, within range’ – but what ranges: B12 RR 100-1500!! (I’ve always asked, ‘what about optimal levels?!’ ) I have hypoT, Hashi’s, coeliac, MCAS, osteoporosis of the spine, all known to deplete vits. etc. and so I ignore the medics and and take supplements despite being told I don’t need them. I also take T3 (I have to buy T3 as, due to the price hike, NHS will no longer provide it) – a whole other area of contentious RRanges for tests! It’s staggering how often reference ranges are changed and always to make them wider and hence less people to fall within the prescribing window!!
You mention taking D but not K? Especially as I have osteoporosis, I ensure that I take vitamin K2/MK-7 to partner the D3 and to ensure my calcium is bound to my bones and not my blood vessels?
Should say 117, not 1117!
I’ve never met a doctor (professionally, socially, extended family) who didn’t *privately* take vitamins themselves. Yet most are unwilling to go on record as recommending everyone else do the same. Very strange. “What vitamins do you take?” is a great question for your doctor if you want to make them instantly uncomfortable.
Many years ago my previous GP, since retired, was really, really adamant about me maintaining my vitamin D levels. He tested my vitamin D level every three months and told me to take 5,000 IU per day (which I have done ever since). I have never encountered another doctor who cares as much about vitamin D. Every other doctor sorta waves his hand and says “yeah that’s great take vitamin D if you want.”
Dexter
I had major eye surgery this summer. I am now waiting for the eye to clear itself of blood. I noticed once that the vitreous humour in tHe eye contains a lot of vitamin C. I asked the surgeon if taking additional vitamin C would accelerate the auto cleansing process. His reply? Don’t expect taking vitamins to change anything. It hasn’t by the way
Maybe adequate vitamin D (50 ng/ml) would help resolve bleeding and removal of clots and random blood? Vit. D is involved in reducing inflammation and specialization of immune cells, which are responsible for taking out the trash (wound scaffolding, clots, random blood, cellular debris, viruses, bacteria, etc.).
“Regulatory Role of Vitamin D Receptor Gene Variants of BsmI, ApaI, TaqI, and FokI Polymorphisms on Macrophage Phagocytosis and Lymphoproliferative Response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigen in Pulmonary Tuberculosis”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:JOCI.0000040923.07879.31
ASD
That seems worth a try, have upped my supplements with immediate effect.
That’s the advantage of this blog, you can always learn something
Thanks
Sharon M – vitamin D and cholesterol
I think Stephanie Seneff argues or has shown that vitamin D and cholesterol share a key biochemical connection. Cholesterol must be present for the body to make vit D.
Substances in our bodies start to increase/decrease with the ageing process e.g. homocysteine increases, CoQ10 decreases.
Not sure about cholesterol though.
Here’s a link to an abstract on PubMed which suggests it does increase with age:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10999646/
Barry Groves’s ‘Trick or Treat’ is a good book from years ago, but still pertinent today, and quite a comfortable read for us non-academics.
Thank you! This explains why IV Vit C stops sepsis.
I have a friend who is prone to sepsis, who won’t take C due to gut issues, and refuses to tell her doctors to try IV Vit C. I suspect she will die of this at some point 😦
I red a study that says vitamins in general shouldn’t be taken with supplements but with food.
The main reason would be that you can’t absorb a vitamin as good as with food; then, it seems that supplements industries use formaldehyde to treat most of these vitamins (especially B complex). To be honest I’ve been using a lot of High dosage vitamins fo the last 30 years,vit C especially ( 3 g. per day) and don’t know what to think about this apparently very good study.
By the way, I’d like to buy your new book (I have all your book), but it seems there’s no ebook version this time,at list here in Italy. Is that possible?
Take care
Sincerely
From the above by Dr. Kendrick:
“However, it is universally believed that the exact requirements for all vitamins – known as the recommended daily allowance (RDA) – which were established decades ago.”
Something is missing from that sentence. What are you saying about the requirements?
How about a subtraction rather than an addition? Get rid of the word “which” after RDA. I think this gets to the intended meaning of the passage.
Cats and dogs make their own vit C but but are not protected if fed a carb rich diet
Important lesson #1: glycocalyx loss = endothelial dysfunction = initiation of inflammation
Important lesson #2: excess blood glucose is a metabolic poison and causes glycocalyx loss
Important lesson #3: vitamin C is important but not a cure for problems associated with glycocalyx loss
Many thanks.
It is important to remember that vitamin C is destroyed by heat, water and exposure to air.
So preparing vegetables early when cutting them is to be avoided and eating fruit and vegetables raw or as little cooked as possible is preferable. Vitamin C is leached out of vegetables when they sit in hot water.
Okay this isn’t related to this excellent (have forwarded to family/friends and linked to Locals.com) article, but a comment in the inserted letter on lipid particles, related to the topic that must not be named, has me wondering what you and your fellow lipid experts think?
https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/the-earlier-lab-leak-hypothesis
What is considered a “high Lp(a) level?
Stefan: In the U.S. (Quest Diagnostics), the Lp(a) range is <75 nmol/L. I've only had the test done once, in 2014, and my result was 76, so a teeny bit high. I've been taking vitamin C (currently 1 g./day, in divided dose) ever since.
Thank you, Gary!
Is ascorbic acid a good form of vitamin C to take? There are claims out there that ascorbic acid is not ‘complete’ vitamin C.
Vitamin C and ascorbic acid are one and the same.
Yes, ascorbic acid is just the technical name for vitamin C.
As to those who say otherwise, the Web is full of half-baked pseudo-experts who just love laying down the law about matters which they don’t understand.
My personal favourite was the American who insisted that “adrenaline” was an inferior European form of adrenalin. Nothing anyone could say would persuade him that they are just different froms (American and British English).
In case you fear that I might be one of them, read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C
Fascinating! Pauling and Rath may have labored in obscurity but they were right.
You write that “most of us, most of the time, probably have sufficient vitamin C intake, and require no supplement” yet Hampl wrote in 2004 that “vitamin C deficiency and depletion were common (occurring among 5%–17% and 13%–23% of respondents” in the NHANES data which suggests perhaps 40% of Americans are grievously in need of a supplement.
So while you’re right that “most of us” are OK, it’s disquieting that so many are not
I’d love to put the pop quiz to my doctor next time I see him. If I’m ever allowed to see him again that is.
You may have a long, LONG wait for that miracle. Your illness/es will probably have cured themselves before that happens.
As old saying has it, the doctor’s job is to keep the patient amused while Nature takes its course.
But now we have the Web…
`Dear Dr Kendrick May I also recommend the D3 I take: Hux 20,000 iu 1 per
week (I start the week with mine on a Monday). They recommend either one
or two weeks and I can’t remember why I was told to make it one. This is
on NHS prescription. I hope I’m getting sufficient C by eating
blueberries for breakfast, etc. I avoid the nightshades but I believe
they are best excluded with fibromyalgia or rheumatic arthritis. Best
wishes Fiona Weir
Thank you and bless you, Dr. Kendrick. So good to get back to health, and away from nonsense.
Amazing post and something couldn’t agree more.
Do you supplement with K2 as well?
Thanks Dr Malcolm, always appreciate your clarity of insights/research
On Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 2:54 AM, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 22nd October 2021 Studying cardiovascular > disease for over thirty years can take you to some very interesting and > seemingly strange places. Places where I never expected to find myself. > Connections appear where you least thought they would be, and” >
Agree. I take K2 with D3. Also have grass fed butter and beef. Benefits all described by Weston Price, but he didn’t know K2 was K2 back then in the 1930s. He called it ‘activator X’. However, he witnessed the benefits of stronger bones and teeth.
Fun thing about Lp(a):
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7760967/
Triiodothyronine rapidly lowers plasma lipoprotein (a) in hypothyroid subjects
Which could open yet another connection about all these obviously inter-connected processes…are we accurately understanding thyroid functioning?
I suggest not.
Those with identified thyroid diseases are at greater risk of cardiovascular events.
But it’s HOW we identify these, the tests, the biomarkers, where I think we fell off a cliff.
The conversion of T4 to T3 in distant tissues varies from serum T3 levels – if humans are like rodents, which would be an interesting thing to investigate, but not so far – and get this:
Thyroid hormone targets matrix Gla protein gene associated with vascular smooth muscle calcification
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16100044/
Sooo…back to my previous claims about calcium dysregulation. That it is a fundamental etiological factor in all the common chronic diseases. Since a zero CAC is a 15 year warranty from death by all causes, and this appears to be a measurable form of calcium in a lengthy continuum of calcium regulation from calcium as a signaling molecule to microcalcifications to (finally) hydroxyapatite in inappropriate places, then this all ties together!
Very informative post, thanks. Just one thing:
You wrote:
“There is a hypothesis that the Inuit ensure that they eat the adrenal glands of various animals they kill, because this is where there is the highest concentration of vitamin C lies. I don’t think I have seen this proven.”
It is not a hypothesis, it’s a fact! Weston Price was the only westerner whom the Native Americans trusted when he visited them in the 1930s. They told him, and only him, their secret, of sharing the adrenaline glands with every member of the tribe receiving a slice whenever they made a killing (of moose) to keep everyone healthy. Of course they didn’t know it contained vitamin C, but they knew it prevented disease. This information would have been passed down the generations year after year, as with all other information on what and what not to eat. See page 69 of his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. An excellent read. The book also describes the importance of vitamin K2, what he called “Activator X” because they didn’t know what vitamin K2 was in those days.
So true about information being passed down.
Todays structures from cement pale in length of endurance to Roman creations from same.
Only we don’t pursue why….
Ancient folks in what is now Louisiana knew how to mix soils to make infrastructure that would endure for very long – recently discovered by us, and we, again, are clueless.
Today, we ‘know’ so much…not.
Experts lack the ability to question themselves, seemingly.
REO. Steel ‘reinforcing’. Means you use less cement (green credentials), cheaper, more stylish structures and built in obsolescence. Because, and I hope you’re sitting down here because the shock might be too great, after all none of the structural engineers seem to know this so I doubt you’ve any idea, steel rusts! Who would ever have thought? And concrete is water permeable (unless you stuff it full of waterproofing agents which are expensive and weaken it) so eventually the steel will, inevitably, rust, expand, and crack the concrete. Within about 100 years maximum. Much less at the seaside, as salt water works much quicker. So all these concrete structures will need replacing within fifty to seventy years (you can’t wait for them to fail). Definitely not green!
On the issue of vitamins, I don’t think it’s appropriate to refer to various processes depleting them, as a cause for low levels. We talk, for example, of the glycocalyx being depleted of hyaluronans due to smoking, hyperglycaemia etc., and this is undoubtedly a bad, bad thing. There is no silver lining. Or calcium depletion in osteoporosis. But the usual cause of vitamin levels falling is consumption by the body for disease prevention. Yes, concentrations are lowered but this is actually a good thing as it means the system is working properly. I was surprised a couple of years ago to find my D levels were 50 (Aussie), at the bottom of the ‘recommended’ levels, despite a high cholesterol high D high sunlight diet. Actually, the same blood test showed my cholesterol at an all time low of 5.2 even though I’d changed to a bacon and egg diet (supplemented with beef, fish, cheese, pâté etc.). What’s going on? No idea, but I’ve been taking 5,000 iu a day because it looks like I need it.
With reference to reinforced concrete; this is what I was taught over 40 years’ ago when studying building construction. Also that reinforced concrete fails faster than large, seasoned timber in cases of fire as the metal distorts in the heat and ‘pops’ the concrete. It was a long time ago that I studied so hope that I have this correctly. (Apologies for being ‘off topic’.)
Yes. Luckily the human body can keep on making repairs
After moving from Vic to tropical Qld, I’m curious to see if my vitamin D levels are better without supplements.
I sunbathe 2 hours pretty much every day in Winter, and since I started eating low carb 15 years ago and then keto, I don’t burn easily (if at all) like I used to.
The benefits of sun exposure though aren’t limited to vitamin D production, and I’d rather go to the beach than take a pill 😁
I was getting 6-8 hours sun a day working outside in Brisbane and still only achieved minimum levels. There’s summat going on in me. Probably better I don’t know what. Just keep on with the D, I think.
Mate, I hope you don’t work with just your budgies smugglers on, that’s how I sunbathe! Then of course I pretty much spend my time outdoor the rest of the day (with clothes on, generally).
The amount of skin exposed to the sunlight is obviously part of the equation, as well the timing and length of it.
As well, I like Fred Provenza’s book Nourishment.
Yes, that is one of my favorite books. Also enjoyed Doritos Effect, of which a lot of Dr. Provenza’s work was featured. He was recently interviewed by Brain Sanders on the Sapiens podcast.
I used that wisdom to handle a dog who developed histamine reaction to some raw beef (hives covering his upper lip, refused food for days, incompetent young vet – they are being taught to throw RX at anything just like MD’s). Now I cook (he can’t eat raw anymore) beef kidney every week, as that is his preference, possible due to low DOA?
Jane Jewell: They also ate the walls of the second stomach.
I think there is more to it. Having become interested in the (few, but rock solid) case studies of people who lived for years on meat and nothing else, I wondered about scurvy.
In particular, I found that some people think Captain Scott’s Antarctic expedition died of scurvy – which the British government hushed up because it didn’t sound too naice.
Scott was extremely careful and conscientious, and took with him all manner of vitamin C sources – lemon juice, etc. But Shackleton didn’t; his expedition ran clean out of ALL food, and had to subsist on what they could get – just meat. Yet not one of them got even a trace of scurvy!
Vilhjalmur Stefansson became convinced of the merits of a meat-only diet while living with the Inuit in the 1920s. On his return to the USA, he and a friend undertook an experiment in which they ate nothing but meat for over a year. They were closely watched by a team of scientific observers who made sure they never cheated. At the end of the year they were at least as healthy as when they started – and I don’t recall any mention of eating adrenal glands.
The other case was Owsley Stanley II (“Bear”), who was associated with the Grateful Dead in the 1960s and mass-produced high-quality LSD before it became illegal. At one point he extended the hospitality of his mansion to the Dead, some of whom complained that Bear didn’t buy any food but meat. The freezer was full of joints, and anyone was welcome to hack off whatever they wanted and cook it (or not) as they wished.
Later, Bear retired to Australia where he continued his meat-only diet. He contracted a serious cancer, which critics blamed on the diet; Bear retorted that without it he would have died.
The interesting thing about all this is that it seems people can live for years eating nothing but meat – as long as it is fatty enough – and never show any sign of scurvy.
What this suggests to me is: what if we think vitamin C is essential when it is nothing but an antidote to refined carbs? That would explain how prehistoric humans got by: they ate no refined carbs, and therefore needed no antidote.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson
https://sites.dartmouth.edu/eaexhibit/
What happens if you go on a meat-only diet for a year?
https://ergo-log.com/meatonly.html
I ate only meat for 21 days – Here’s 10 benefits I felt
https://goodglow.co/carnivore-diet-zerocarb-benefits
The bear
Re; nothing but meat
Just don’t make the mistake of relying on industrial chicken and pork, too much inflammatory omega-6 linoleic acid.
You are correct Prudence,thank you for writing what I was going to say.with the references. Can I add I have Been on a low carb Diet for 20 plus years now .The only difficulty I have is buying Fresh fat Meat! Dr Blake Donaldson’s book Strong Medicine is also worth reading, as well as My Life Without Bread Dr Lutz at 50 by Valerie Bracken.
Apologies to Bear. That should have read “Owsley Stanley III”.
The number of people following a meat only diet is quite large and growing, and in my experience as nutritionist there are more long term carnivores than vegans.
Most tend to be quite orthodox, to the point of not even using a little bit of pepper on their steaks, and usually rely on fatty cuts of beef and lamb.
No scurvy reported.
I myself go back for stretches of a few weeks of almost carnivore every now and then, the “almost” part due to still drinking wine and coffee. I like veggies, but they really don’t agree with me and I’m much better without, but I find a carnivore diet a little bit too boring.
So it seems to me quite clear that scurvy isn’t due to the lack of vitamin C, but it could be that the small traces in fresh meat, in the absence of carbohydrates, are enough.
In my opinion, there are growing indications that ascorbic acid could help compensating the effects of living in an environment polluted by EMRs, and since it’s dirty cheap and it tastes great, I take routinely a few grams a day.
The Grateful Dead complained that the freezer was full of . . . joints ?
Do you think they enjoyed any Bear grills?
Jane Pottinger’s Cats is well worth reading to, also The Bellevue experiment P60-89 in Stefensson’s “not by bread alone” A synopsis is in My Life Without Bread Dr Lutz at 90 by Valerie Bracken pages 158- 164.. The scientific study’s of the experiment themselves make fascinating reading…two men on an all meat diet for a year?!!!!
I think that the Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is the most important book of nutrition ever made. There you find all what is wrong in todays foods and it was revealed almost hundred years ago! Unfortunately this information was and is ignored.
The book is bit trouble to read due to all statistics in written form. New version should be made with statistics in tables to ease reading.
Not difficult to read at all, I managed it. I just didn’t bother with the statistics. They aren’t needed to understand that nutrition is THE most important factor, and you get an interesting journey round the world, all while sitting in front of a nice fire.
AhNotepad. I agree. Although stats are interesting I am at the point when, so long as they are logical and convincing, then merely remembering the nutritional message is all I can manage these days.
Any reason why my reply has not appeared Dr Kendrick ?
Nope
Where are the studies to show how long a summer’s store of vitamin D lasts in the body?
Dear Dr. Kendrick,
this is among the best informative articles I’ve read in my life so far.. It’s absolutely amazing!
Because now I know what I can do to help my old father even more. He has diabetes II, high cholesterol and have had a stroke that he recovered almost fully from 2,5 years ago. He is on insulin and alot of other medications. The doctors tells him there’s nothing more he can do than to take his medications. They have’nt said one single word about how/what to eat as a diabetic or about vitamins & minerals in all these years. Not one word. Only that he has to accept that with age comes complicatons and aches… What a caring way to cheer up an old man who needs encuraging words and knowledge about healthy nutrition..
I’ll buy him Vitamin C 💖☀️💖
Thank You so much for teaching me & my family about this, Dr Kendrick.
All the Best
//Uli
Very interesting, in Australia we have poor soils, I remember a person born and living his early life in Europe tell me that the food just didn’t seem the same, there was somthing missing.
It would be interesting to know what plants the aboriginal was after as most of the time they move from place to place, I know this was due to hunting but was it also due to the seasonal aspects of vital plants they needed for good health, when they were moved to missions in English policy and given an English diet their health plummeted and many diseases such as glaucoma took over.
I have been talking to friends about vitamin D for some years now, to no avail. Some time ago I contacted Dr Cicero Coimbra, a Brazilian professor of neuroscience, about a friend who has MS (sadly my friend had left it too long before seeking vitamin D treatment). Dr Coimbra treats autoimmune conditions with high doses of vitamin D, around 100,000iu per day. Always under medical supervision.
Having been recommended vitamin D by a private doctor I have been taking 4,000iu of D3 every day for some years now; I also take vitamin K2 MK4 (MK4 is preferred by Dr Coimbra) and magnesium. I thought that the recommendation of our government to take 400iu of vitamin D per day pathetic. I have found no evidence that ‘high’ doses of vitamin D can be fatal; the usual scaremongering.
Yes, there was something strange about that event. The health secretary at the time (yes him) said something like, “I am afraid evidence is growing that Vitamin D helps regarding COVID”, and then took the least effective action. I mean why not have just told everyone to go out and buy 2000 iu of vitamin D and take it daily, instead of stalling the process for weeks while a special booster dose of a mere 400 iu was delivered to the ‘vulnerable’?
However whenever I look for vitamin D in Tesco, the shelves seem to be groaning in it – people seem to have got the message – no thanks to the NHS.
tl;dr
calcifediol arm: 16.8 days to reach >30 ng/ml of 25OHD3 which all women achieved
D3 arm: 68.4 days to reach >30 ng/ml of 25OHD3 and was only achieved by 70%
(25OHD3 IS calcifediol)
——————————
“Pharmacokinetics of oral vitamin D3 and calcifediol”
“Methods
In this seven-arm, randomized, double-blind, controlled parallel-group study, 35 healthy females aged 50–70 years (5 per group) received 20 μg calcifediol or vitaminD3 daily, 140 μg calcifediol or vitaminD3 weekly, for 15 weeks, or a single bolus of either 140 μg calcifediol, or vitaminD3, or both. 25(OH)D3 plasma concentrations were quantified using LC–MS/MS in 14 clinical visits among all participants.
Results
For daily (weekly) dosing, the area under the concentration–time curve (AUC0–24h), which is the measure for exposure, was 28% (67%) higher after the first dose of calcifediol than after the first dose of vitamin D3. After 15 weeks, this difference was 123% (178%). All women in the daily and weekly calcifediol groups achieved 25(OH)D3 concentrations > 30 ng/mL (mean, 16.8 days), but only 70% in the vitamin D3 daily or weekly groups reached this concentration (mean, 68.4 days). A single dose of 140 μg calcifediol led to 117% higher 25(OH)D3 AUC0–96h values than 140 μg vitamin D3, while the simultaneous intake of both did not further increase exposure.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S8756328213003967
10 micrograms D3 is 400 iu, so they received 800 iu daily. So that study said that the 800 iu is not sufficient to achieve the levels they wanted. D3 is cheap and easily available. It is easy enough to take more. I take one 10k iu softgel daily. I’m not sure what my blood level is. In Ireland they stop counting at 100 (my results just show >100). When I was taking 5k iu/day my levels were 76.
D3 maybe works if you’re 25 and not in the hospital. You can wait a few months for your levels to rise.
D3 is too slow if you’re 75 and in the hospital with covid. You want an immune boost in hours, not months.
Calcitriol injections maybe?
That will work if you want to screw up your immune system.
It turns out that your immune system operates best when it determines the local calcitriol level. Otherwise you end up using up your immune precursor cells uselessly and you end up turning off inflammation in places where infection hasn’t been cleared, leaving infections to continue.
The immune system produces and uses calcitriol locally. Raising calcitriol levels systemically only causes problems, from what I can tell.
levels were 76? units?
76 nanomoles per milliliter isn’t much
Dr. Kendrick, I am curious about your thoughts on glycine deficiency and it’s role in arteriosclerosis
About vit c intake what do you think of this report…
The amount of non-liposomal Vitamin C absorbed in the blood decreases dramatically as the dose size increases. Of a 20 mg dose, 19 mg (98%) can be absorbed. Of a 12,000 mg dose, only 16% (1,920 mg) is absorbed, with all that excess causing some major gastric distress when it leaves the body.
Vitamin C is water-soluble, so your body can’t store any excess when it gets left behind in either the blood or the digestive system. That’s why so much of the vitamin content from pills, powders, and even foods is passed as waste. And where it gets abandoned dictates the way your body passes it.
Using patented technology, we wrap the Vitamin C in double-layered phospholipid spheres (liposomes) that protect the vitamin through the digestive system and transport it into the bloodstream for absorption in the cells. So, you get all the benefits of high-dose Vitamin C without the gastric distress.
https://www.livonlabs.com/products/vitamin-c/
I’m always skeptical when a company try to improve a very effective product and sell it for 20 times as much.
I’ve personally seen people taking 2g every hour for 24 or 48 hours without any GI issue, as well as people running (and when I say running I mean it) to the nearest toilet after one 2g dose.
A couple of GPs I know are offering (hush hush, not approved treatment) vitamin C IVs, but I was told about a patient who really didn’t want the needle taking 4g per hours orally without any discomfort.
But is the company correct that your body can only absorb as much oral Vitamin C as your limited number of nutrient transporters can carry — from the digestive system to the bloodstream, and then from the bloodstream to the cells? And that the excess in a large dose, since it is not absorbed is what causes gastric distress? The implication being that small doses should be taken throughout the day for maximum benefit and minimal distress.
What are these “nutrient transporters?”
I had no background information by which to answer your question so I searched and found this which seems to say that the body only makes use of a small amount of oral Vit C at any one time and expels the surplus…
2.1.5. Steady State Homeostasis of Vitamin C Following Oral Administration/Intake
Most low molecular weight drug pharmacokinetics can be modelled by first order kinetics within their therapeutic range, i.e., a doubling of the dose results in a doubling of the steady state plasma concentration. However, the dominant role of the saturable active transport mechanisms in the absorption, distribution, and excretion of ASC results in nonlinear dose-dependent pharmacokinetics. With increasing vitC intake, the plasma steady state concentration reaches a maximal level of about 70–80 µM [70,71]. From the available literature, it appears that a daily intake of about 200–400 mg of vitC ensures saturation of the blood in healthy individuals [20]. During periods of altered distribution due to temporary physiological needs such as pregnancy or increased turnover during disease or smoking, higher intakes are needed to maintain sufficient levels.
It may be possible to exceed the homeostatic saturation level of 70–80 µM by several fold through multiple daily gram doses of vitC. At supraphysiological levels, vitC gradually adheres to first order kinetics as discussed under intravenous administration. Hence, it is possible to estimate that, for example, a dose of 2 g of vitC given three times a day is likely to result in a steady state plasma concentration of about 250 µM (calculations based to data from ref [13]). However, the possible health benefits from such supraphysiological levels have yet to be documented.
2.1.6. Effect of Dosing Forms and Formulations
Several attempts have been made to bypass the maximum steady state plasma concentration of about 70–80 µM achievable through oral administration. A slow release formulation would theoretically extend the uptake period resulting in a prolonged and thus increased accumulated uptake thereby increasing the overall exposure. However, Viscovich et al. did not find any significant differences in exposure or other pharmacokinetic variables between plain and slow release vitC supplements given to smokers, neither at study start nor after 4 weeks of supplementation [29]. Another approach to increase the maximum achievable plasma concentration through oral administration has been liposomes. The pharmacokinetic properties of a bolus of four grams of liposome-encapsulated vitC were compared to those of plain vitC and placebo in eleven volunteers in a crossover trial [72]. The authors found a 35% increase in exposure (AUC0–4hours) with a plasma Cmax of about 200 µM after 3 h. Unfortunately, plasma concentrations were not measured beyond the 4 h time point. In an attempt to show a potential biological significance of increased plasma vitC status, the participants were subjected to a 20-min partial ischemia induced by a blood pressure cuff at 200 mm Hg. However, no beneficial effect on ischemia-reperfusion-induced oxidative stress was observed on lipid peroxidation over that of the non-encapsulated dose of vitC [72]. Regardless, this technology has shown some promise and continues to be explored in anticancer therapy, where chemotherapeutics can be delivered together with vitC for a potentially synergistic effect [73]. In another sophisticated approach, the particular ability of the brain to take up vitC has been used by linking ASC to the surface of liposomes containing chemotherapeutics thereby making a brain-specific drug delivery system by using the endogenous vitC transport mechanisms [74].
2.2. Intravenous Route of Administration
Intravenous administration of drugs generally produces a predictable plasma concentration by avoiding absorption limitations, resulting in 100% bioavailability. For vitC specifically, intravenous administration bypasses the saturable absorption mechanisms. This virtually removes the upper limit of the maximum achievable plasma concentration. Parenteral administration of vitC is typically handled by intravenous infusion. This approach results in a predictable plasma steady state concentration that will remain constant until infusion is discontinued. For vitC, a linear relationship between dose and Cmax can be observed for doses up to about 70 g/m2 in humans as complied from clinical pharmacokinetic studies, resulting in a plasma concentration of about 50 mM (Figure 6, calculations based on [13,75]). For higher doses, the linearity seems to disappear and resembles a level of saturation. However, more data are needed to establish if 50 mM constitutes an upper steady state vitC concentration in plasma.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6835439/
It basically says that a single oral dose can’t achieve the blood concentration that a single IV dose can, but probably repeated oral doses could, and anyway they don’t know because they didn’t try it…
Now, I’m quite confident that 50 or 70g IVs are much more effective if you want to treat serious medical issues, you know, the sort of medical issues that most doctors get in trouble when they try to treat them with AA IVs. But 2-8g per hour oral doses aren’t a bad alternative, especially because you can repeat them for many days.
I think what is being said is that taking any oral dose over 400mg is futile since the excess will not make it into the bloodstream anyway. The way around that is to using liposomal C or IV injection. Am I reading it incorrectly?
Is it possible that the body absorbs more Vit C if it is actually in need of it? Presumably the tests were done on healthy volunteers, who might need less than many people.
From work done in the 1930s and onwards by Klenner, Cathcart, Jungblut and others, the dose for vitamin C depends on the day to day, and even hour to hour condition of the patient. Cathcart described ailments as being a 10 gram, maybe 20 gram, even 100 gram cold. They were the amounts of C needed, distributed through the day to alleviate symptoms.
Fascinating and entertaining article. I’m already a fan of these vitamin supplements but it’s good to get a reminder to actually take them.
Thank you
Dear dr Kendrick,
You mention “high” Lp(a) levels. What is high?
Kind Regards, Marina Wellsford
Sent from my iPhone
Excellent article as always thank you Dr.K.
I’ve always been curious to know if we produce vitamin D by going on a sunbed? I don’t actually but just curious any information about this anyone aware of please?
Different wavelengths generate vitamin D and a suntan.
This product is used to generate vitamin D: https://www.sperti.com/product/sperti-vitamin-d-light-box/
A sunbed is not designed to generate vitamin D.
Phil
Thank you so much I’ve always wondered
Sunbeds mostly use UVA lamps, because that’s the frequency that causes most of the tan, but it has less effect on vitamin D production.
Human beings produce vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) through skin irradiation by UVB light, but the one measured in the blood is calcidiol (25(OH)D) that is the result of cholecalciferol hydroxylation by the liver.
Please note that UVB frequencies are blocked by most common types of glass, while UVA are not, therefore sitting in a nice glass house enjoying the sun will give you a nice tan but not vitamin D… 😁
Actually, there are two tests for two types of vitamin D–calcidiol (aka “calcifediol”) and calcitriol.
Calcidiol is the serum form of vitamin D. D3 quickly moves into fat cells by osmosis from the blood is my understanding. Not sure how D3 is moved back into the blood, but it assuredly occurs during winter.
The liver metabolizes D3 into calcidiol, which is released into the blood, and the kidneys metabolize calcidiol into calcitriol. The kidneys are responsible for tight regulation of calcitriol levels.
theasdgamer: What, then, of cholecalciferol? This is my vitamin D supplement (5,000 IU/125mcg, along with 50mcg menaquinone-7 from chickpeas). Who ever invented these ridiculous names should have been drowned at birth.
Gary,
Afaik, there are no retail tests for chole-whatever. 😉
Supplementing with D3 is dilatory, so if you haven’t been doing it a while, you may need to go to calcidiol directly. Think of someone in the ICU with covid who has serum levels of 9 mcg/ml of calcidiol as a person who needs an immediate boost in levels.
I think that it makes sense to get tested in the fall for calcidiol levels and to supplement with calcidiol if you’re much below your target. Once you hit your target, then you supplement with D3 unless that won’t work for you for some reason.
The calcidiol serum half life is 29 days, so you probably won’t drop more than 4% per day.
The D3 serum half life is around four hours, iirc.
In Australia, USA and Italy, a doctor prescribing a vitamin D levels test is always prescribing a 25(OH)D test, I’m sure you can test other forms of vitamin D too, but this is what is currently done.
Of course we could debate if those results have a significant meaning in terms of vitamin deficiency, some say they have not, but this is a whole different matter.
This is a standard “vitamin D” test in the US.
https://www.labcorp.com/tests/081091/calcitriol-1-25-di-oh-vitamin-d
So is this.
https://www.labcorp.com/tests/081950/vitamin-d-25-hydroxy
The problem with the term “vitamin D” is that it is so ambiguous nowadays. Originally it meant only cholecalciferol. Now it can mean cholecalciferol, calcitriol, calcifediol (aka “calcidiol”), all of which have very different functions.
Deep dive follows.
Here is my understanding of vitamin D and human physiology.
Cholecalciferol (aka D3) is the lipid storage form, calcifediol is the serum metabolite form, and calcitriol is the active form.
To further complicate things, calcitriol has two distinct functions: 1) paracrine: to signal the parathyroid to increase/lower calcium and phosphate blood levels and 2) immune: to signal the immune cells to specialize and to enable reduction in inflammation after an infection.
But we aren’t done with the complications. The kidneys can metabolize calcifediol into calcitriol to maintain a narrow range in the blood serum. Immune cells can also metabolize calcifediol into calcitriol for internal use, so they don’t have to take calcitriol from the blood and potentially sabotage serum calcitriol levels. But it seems that optimal immune function will only occur when serum calcifediol levels of 40-60 ng/ml are achieved. It seems that calcifediol levels below 40 ng/ml ought to be considered immunogically-deficient. And 40 might even be low–some researchers think 50 is necessary.
The liver metabolizes cholecalciferol into calcifediol. This is a slow process which prevents toxic levels of calcifediol.
The uptake of cholecalciferol by lipid cells is a very fast process so that most cholecalciferol production/supplementation goes into lipid cells. There is also a slow, reverse process that moves cholecalciferol from lipid cells into blood serum. The reverse process serves to keep serum calcifediol level fairly stable.
When you compare kinetics of cholecalciferol and calcifediol in human physiology, cholecalciferol has a half life of 26-54 hours, but calcifediol has a half life of 29 days.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1187473/?page=1
Perhaps body weight should be a factor to consider when taking supplements. Extra high levels (whatever they are!) may not be toxic but they may create problems for the body of which we are unaware.
I once hard from a French researcher who had devoted his life to vit D that as we age the amount of the vit D precursor that can be converted into active vit D by sunlight decreases significantly.
Also, if vit C is indeed present in great amount in meat, it is easily destroyed by heat.
Should I take magnesium and K2 with higher doses of vit.D3?
I experimented with Magnesium (400mg daily) for about three months, to see if the stated benefits of lowering of anxiety and sleeping better would be realised – they weren’t. But I did experience the negative side effect of mild ‘tummy trouble’. So, I gave up with the magnesium and saved my money. I do continue to take 4,000 IUs of D3 daily though.
(I thought Dr K implied he was going to write about Magnesium, but nothing to date)
Do you remember what form of magnesium was that?
Most magnesium salts aren’t well absorbed or have serious side effects, like the infamous magnesium chloride that compete with very high high doses of vitamin C in terms of running to the toilet before having a major accident…
Magnesium chelates are the best forms to take, glycinate is probably the most used, but they are much more expensive.
Mix Milk of Magnesium with carbonated spring water and shake, add as much mag as will stay in solution. This forms magnesium bicarbonate which is the easiest form for the body to absorb.
I take 600mg of magnesium every day, via magnesium chloride, and I don’t have the ‘laxative effect’. Magnesium oxide, on the other hand, is often prescribed as a laxative, as is magnesium sulphate.
It did give me a slight problem initially, but I just cut back on the dose for a few days, until I tolerated it.
Steve, you can always bathe in Epsom salts. In water they break down into magnesium. They are absorbed into your body via your skin.
Try magnesium glycinate.
rem: Magnesium threonate is also good.
I’m not a doctor or scientist, but like most who read this blog, I enjoy thinking and theorizing. Your statement that most animals make their own Vitamin C but humans do not, since we are missing the ability to take the fourth step, got me doing a little research and I ended up with a few questions for the good doctor.
Under stress, animals will synthesize more glucose into ascorbic acid, less in less stressful times. Their physiology basically knows how much they need and does its best to make it. Each step requires an enzyme to create a new molecule from glucose, which is then acted on by the next enzyme in the sequence, until we reach ascorbic acid. You said humans possess three of the necessary four enzymes. So we make some molecule (It has a long name I forgot but I’m sure someone here knows) which is a step away from C. Here are my questions: Could we measure the amount of this precursor molecule in the bloodstream under various conditions and determine how much C our body would create, if it could, under these conditions? Or have we also lost the biofeedback loops that trigger the enzymatic cascade that culminates in C? Is sugar such a problem for our metabolism because our body really wants to convert it into C? And finally, could sugar cravings actually be Vitamin C cravings?
Don, for heavens sake, you are not “a doctor or scientist”
oliveriea, can you explain the point you are trying to make, as you are not succeeding.
Haha, it’s ok. Dr Kendrick didn’t answer my questions so they must not have any scientific merit. Can’t blame a guy for trying!
If you mean to say my questions are ignorant or unfounded, I apologize. I am sorry if my lack of scientific knowledge offended you or anyone else here.
Witty and Vallance are supposed to be scientists, and Vallance is a doctor. Neither of them are saying anything which a non-scientist or non-doctor can detect as misinformation, so what is the benefit of the qualifications?
OUCH! I meant can not detect
Don,
I thought it was a perfectly good question. Another question, oft asked but not answered, is why humans (and a few other animals) lost that fourth step. It suggests there is no particular selective benefit to making C, at least in whatever environment the loss occurred. It certainly hasn’t stopped the human race from “conquering the world”, although it may make aging for individuals rather miserable.
Probably no one is researching this stuff, likely because it’s just as cheap and easy to take a pill.
Oliveira, from your posts I believe that you are well informed and sensible. But sometimes your posts are so short that it’s difficult to understand exactly what you mean.
Are you saying that Don should not ask about such things because he is “not a doctor or scientist”?
Or are you suggesting (ironically) that of course he should feel free to ask questions?
Hi Don: Perhaps humans evolved as scavengers and their metabolism shifted to fat as primary source of energy. Uric acid then replaced plant based antioxidants. Reverting to glucose as primary fuel is now creating metabolic problems. In other words vitamin C cannot solve problems of running your body on 100% glucose for too long.
Another cardio vascular reason to think about vit C: congestive heart failure
Last year I had my second visit in 5 years to a cardiology ward, this time with congestive heart failure.
Very, very nasty as my lungs and legs filled with fluid due to an under/poorly performing heart.
Part of the treatment was diuretics, specifically furosemide in my case.
Subsequently, I learnt that diuretics deplete the body of vitamin C (possibly other things too).
I think I got this info from the Formula 216 website. Here’s the link to the q&a:
https://formula216.com/qa/
It’s question 7 – “What depletes the body of vitamin C?”
I note that aspirin is also mentioned, another medication often associated with cardio vascular problems.
The most important fact to understand is that official medicine doesn’t just kill a mountain of people each year with their properly prescribed drugs and other interventions but has been causing ADDITIONAL holocaustal damage by the suppression of alternative medicine, such as vitamin therapies, and this long lasting crime is continuing now with the Covid Scam — read “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” by Rolf Hefti at https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
“Finding individuals who can think for themselves now is like finding diamonds in a sewer.” — Unknown
More on “Think of collagen as being like the steel bars in concrete…”
Continuing the building analogy, Dr. Suzanne Humphries has an alternative I like – bricks and mortar, the bricks being the cells and the mortar/cement being the collagen.
You can see it here at 38 m 45 s with the slide “Structure and integrity”:
https://drsuzanne.net/dr-suzanne-humphries-oral-intravenous-vitamin-c/
Charles Gale. In response to your video of Dr Davis.
I have followed Dr Davis for years, but I am rather critical of some of his advice. e.g. I supplement with 5000iu vitamin D3 tablet. I take it with food containing double cream. I do not have access to other forms, and do not believe I am ingesting the tablets in vain.
I accept what he says about the modern production of wheat being poorer than that of 70 odd years ago. So, as I do not have access to grain produced by ancient methods, I mitigate the problems he describes as best I can, rather than eliminating grains altogether. I believe grains have important vitamins and minerals, so I buy organic whole grains, and stone mill them as and when required. I also use a long fermentation method, without any yeast, to produce bread as wholesome as I can.
I am fortunate to have the time to faff on like this , but I would like mass produced baked goods to be better controlled, so that the public have access to good quality, wholesome, tasty food. So many people are short of time, and I believe they need protecting, so that they to can afford ‘proper’ food.
‘Nanny State?’ Bring it on!!!!
Dr. Kendrick,
Until now, Mr Chris was the only to congratulate you “for no mention of COVID”.
Guidelines are not God lines.
Treat human people. Do not treat tests.
For me it is not a surprise the little we know about biology.
A forgotten law of medication: if the package says that each pill has 5 mg no one guarantees that 5 mg are delivered to our body. Treat people, not pill makers.
If addicts inject themselves, why not an independent person will do the same when things go awry in disease?
Peace
My post was written for many who had contributed.
Dr. Kendrick have a vast knowledge and wisdom.
Because of modern farming techniques most foods like your greens fruit etc don’t have the required levels of vitamin and minerals in them, so even if you eat a healthy diet you may not be getting what you need.
Most processed foods add these minerals and vitamins…but they are not in the form our bodies can use, so we have slowly created a less healthy population over time which is great for the pharmaceutical companies.
If we had a well balanced diet from foods grown in a healthy soil most modern ailments would disappear…but we don’t so each individual has to do their own research to find what they lack.
I just saw this graphic that shows CVD risk associated with various atherothrombotic biomarkers. Note that the highest risk is associated with fibrinogen. Apparently it has been known for a long time that elevated fibrinogen is associated with increased CVD risk, but this is the first I’ve heard of it. Certainly I’ve never met a doctor who cared about it or measured it – all they care about are your lipid numbers. Why is that? Is it because the treatment for elevated fibrinogen levels (what is that treatment?) is cheap whereas the treatment for “bad” lipid levels is profitable for Big Pharm?
Note in the graphic that cholesterol barely registers as a risk factor, and diabetes more strongly linked.
Thank you
Thank you, Malcolm.
Just in case this isn’t up on the replies yet here’s another Ivor Cummings podcast about Vitamin D with Dr David Grimes and others- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_96ybTMNE
I’m not sure about Lp(a). I have ridiculously high Lp(a) (ranges from 221-367 nmol/L, or 125 mg/dL for the one test I got in those units). Yet, I got a zero score on a CAC scan (90% of people my age scored higher). Also, I have no aortic stenosis, as verified multiple times by transthoracic echocardiogram. (Aortic stenosis is supposedly caused by high Lp(a).)
And I feel bad when I take vitamin C.
So, I’m not sure what to think about this particular post.
Keto since 1/1/14.
Anyone is free to think what they like about any of my posts. It is kind of the point
Malcolm
Do you gave any theory as to the mechanism whereby some people have higher levels of Lp(a) than others. Does my thought that perhaps they need it of any merit?
Doesn’t this support the idea of a link between LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease?
That would be an interpretation that requires an ability to distort reality to an interesting degree
How so?
Because two things appear closely related, does not mean that they are. It is true that LDL and Lp(a) are related in structure, as they must be, because Lp(a) is LDL with an additional protein attached. However, they are completely unrelated in function. One transports fatty acids and cholesterol, the other acts as a blood clotting factor.
Plasminogen and apolipoprotein(a) are also virtually identical in structure. However, they have the exact opposite function in the body. One, when converted to plasmin, breaks up blood clots, the other stops blood clots being broken up.
Thalidomide come in two different structures in a racemic mix. Levo and dextro (left and right handed molecules). They are identical in chemical structure. However, only one form causes the birth defects, the other is perfectly safe. Look at your left and your right hand, and tell me how they are different. Then shaking hands with someone using your right hand and their left hand.
Subtle differences in structure create molecules with opposing effects.. Ergo, LDL and Lp(a) are completely different things.
Thanks for clarifying this. I will order some high strength vitamin C.
Reality check:
Dr. Kendrick, let me try out this idea here.
You’ve taught us on a previous occasion that not only is there no reason for LDL to plow itself into an artery wall, but that it cannot do it. The LDL molecule is too large and besides, there are no receptors until you get to the small vessels.
Yes?
But mightn’t a large molecule like that go bashing around at stress points like sharp curves and branches, damaging the glycocalyx and possibly endothelial cells themselves – then continue on its merry way?
Then a clot forms, gets incorporated as new endothelium forms over it . . . etc, etc.
Ergo, those large LDL molecules cause heart disease. Voila! No??
No
Dr Kendrick
Will statins also lower Lp(a)?
No
Fred Hoyle has an anecdote along similar lines in his autobiography “Home Is Where The Wind Blows”.
‘According to Tommy [Gold], at the end of the seminar, someone said: “I didn’t find what you said about such-and-such to be very convincing,” to which I apparently replied: “I wasn’t trying to convince you. I was simply saying what I thought”…’
Something else Vit C does…… it makes bread rise. When I ran out of bread improver some time ago and the supermarket was also out of it, I searched to see what was in it. Surprise, surprise….ascorbic acid. So now I throw a couple of 500 mg tablets into the grinder with the wheat. Best bread I’ve ever made!
This I have to try! I don’t eat bread, but I make a few versions of keto bread and I’m curious to see if there is any improvement adding a bit of AA.
I didn’t know that; I don’t use bread improver. I’ll give it a go when I next make some sourdough.
The ascorbic acid is only reacting with the alkali in the dough and generating carbon dioxide. So the ill-informed might tell you are contributing to the fraudulent climate change. Look at http://www.realclimatescience.com, and especially http://www.climateclips.com for a sanity inoculation.
Beer will also do this. Some people might consider this a waste, but I drink whisky, so any random beer is a candidate for bread. Very tasty bread, too!
A really interesting article with lots of food for thought. However, I am worried that a correlation is assumed to be causative.
OK, so sick people have lower vitamin D levels. Perhaps sick people don’t go out in the sun as much as well people, so it is no surprise their vitamin D levels are lower ?
Even without that, vitamin D levels correlate with sun exposure. How do we know it is not the sun exposure that is the beneficial factor, rather than vitamin D per se? The vitamin D level could be a cross-correlation, not important in itself.
Of course this is possible. There are clearly benefits to sun exposure over and above vitamin D synthesis. However I believe that the known physiological benefits of vitamin D do account for many of the problems seen with low levels
In “Toxic Legacy”, Dr Stephanie Seneff writes:
” …eNOS [endothelial nitric oxide synthase] synthesizes sulfate in response to sunlight. I would even surmise that this is a far more important benefit of sunlight exposure than the synthesis of vitamin D. This could also explain why red blood cells have a lot of eNOS in their membrane. They use it to oxidize sulfur, not nitrogen”.
Apologies, a keyboard error- this was meant to be forwarded to a friend.
On Mon, Oct 25, 2021 at 7:10 AM Barbara Stewart wrote:
> Hiya, > > I don’t know if you subscribe to Malcolm Kendrick? he wrote some cracking > pieces about covid, and is, of course, a well-known statin critic. > > ———- Forwarded message ——— > From: Dr. Malcolm Kendrick > Date: Fri, Oct 22, 2021 at 7:51 AM > Subject: [New post] Let’s talk about C – just you and me > To: > > > Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: ” 22nd October 2021 Studying cardiovascular > disease for over thirty years can take you to some very interesting and > seemingly strange places. Places where I never expected to find myself. > Connections appear where you least thought they would be, and” >
Thank you for your article concerning Vitamn C and Lp(a). I just received results of my latest blood test and my doctor told me that I do have a high level of Lp(a). Like Bob Harper, I think I am in great shape for age 74. Vitamin D level 79.5, HDL 95, Trigs 62 but LDL 132. I do not currently take supplemental Vit C but will start today. I’m very thankful that my doctor ordered the additional test for particle size in blood. I just had a CCTA and am waiting for results from my cardiologist. I’m hoping that there is no significant plaque at this point.
Thank you again for a very enlightening article.
Those are great HDL and trigs. I wouldn’t be concerned (personally) with “high” LDL.
Re; vitamin C vs uric acid as an essential antioxidant. Why traditional Inuit diet did not require 5 servings of fruit and vegetables.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409734/
Fructose Intake, Serum Uric Acid, and Cardiometabolic Disorders: A Critical Review
“There is a direct relationship between fructose intake and serum levels of uric acid (UA), which is the final product of purine metabolism. Recent preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that chronic hyperuricemia is an independent risk factor for hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC349151/
Uric acid provides an antioxidant defence in humans against oxidant- and radical-caused aging and cancer: a hypothesis.
“The plasma urate levels in humans (about 300 microM) is considerably higher than the ascorbate level, making it one of the major antioxidants in humans.”
Thank You so much for this article Dr Kendrick.
My 87 year old Mum was rushed to hospital last week having chest pains. She had received her vaccine booster Pfizer the week previous. Her heart rate was 130/140 when she came in and may have had a small heart attack. Thankfully she is out of hospital and on medication to slow heart. (apixaban to thin blood and amiodarone for heart rhythms)
Nurse in hospital said it may have been related to booster as they are having lots of strange reactions post booster and people with and irregular heart rhythms.
I am assuming that Vit C and D will not do any harm for her to take. Should she be mega diosing or just regular? Any advice appreciated.
I’m a fan of testing my calcidiol level and supplementing with calcidiol (aka calcifediol) once to achieve the desired level, then supplementing daily with 10k units of D3 in winter.
A couple of years ago I decided to increase my vitamin D intake from ~5000 IU to something like 8000 IU (200ug). Then I lost my ability to sleep. Almost completely. I could lie in the bed the whole night awake not being able to fall asleep for a second. My brother had kind of similar experience with such amounts. We decided to stop supplementing vitamin D and the problem was resolved. I was left wondering wtf happened. Does anyone have idea? But yeah I’ve been scared of vitamin D supplements since then and probably not getting enough.
Now as I ponder this again, I began to wonder if it could have something to do with testosterone. I think I have had sleeping problems when my testosterone levels have changed. Not sure though.
Better stay out of the sun if too much vitamin D keeps you awake. You can get up to 20k units of D3 from a single exposure in summer.
Sun exposure hasn’t caused me sleeping problems, so.. I don’t know what it is, what actually created that effect. It just seemed to happen right after increasing the vitamin D dose. Could it work somehow differently than vitamin D by sun?
Anyway, I know what I have to do, in the name of science.. I hope it’ll be okay this time.
Several years ago I remember reading that vitamin d (the sunshine vitamin) is best taken in the morning. I also had experience of taking a nighttime supplement for menopausal women and not being able to sleep a wink. Guess what it contained?
Probably coincidental but I’ve taken my supplement at breakfast ever since and have no problems sleeping.
Not sure about the testosterone…
A cracking post, Dr. K. Thank you.
Great stuff! As always. A word of caution that I learned in the ’70s from Dr Gaston Pawan (died 2003) that patients who stopped taking vit C abruptly, after a period of high intake, actually showed clinical signs of scurvy. Also: a good read (which you probably have already done) is Norman Cousins’ “Anatomy of an Illness”. Pub 1979. I love this blog! Keep it coming!
Thanks for the warning, Jill. In fact I imagine something of the kind can happen if any regular supplement is suddenly withdrawn.
On the other hand, if you try to think of a mechanism that could cause symptoms of scurvy when a person is still presumably getting at least the RDA…
Dr Kendrick – Sorry to hear about your …Too Loose La Trek ;-}
What about traumatic symplegia?
Is there any research if Vit C slows or reverses presbyopia? Since the lens is not part of the circulation, any effect would have to be on the muscles that acutate the lens.
Even those parts without a blood supply contain liquids that are fed from the local blood supply, so the lens does receive vitamin C:
“Aqueous humour – maintains the pressure in your eye and nourishes the cornea and the lens by supplying amino acids and glucose, as well as vitamin C.”
I’m 57 years old and my presbyopia disappeared after I began taking 5 ml. daily dmso and 10 grams Vitamin C. I didn’t take them for that reason and that was an unintended benefit. I can read smaller print than my 40 year old brother with no reading glasses. My wife takes same and hers did not resolve completely but it did improve slightly.
What dilution DMSO to you use. I have a bottle of the neat stuff, I think 5ml of that might kill me.
I have 99.9% pure dmso that I dilute in just a few ml. of water. It won’t kill you and has many beneficial effects. I’ve taken as much as 30ml. of the pure dmso diluted in just a few ml. of water. The only bad side effect is you will smell sort of like a funky garlic.
I guess I should clarify. Dmso is routinely used at 70%. It’s been found to be more effective at 70% and you can purchase it prediluted. But you have nothing to fear from the 100%. It’s not going to kill you. I just mix roughly equal parts water to the dmso to get a roughly 50% dilution. You don’t really need to be that exact. It is a near miraculous pain killer. See if you can find the old 60 Minute program with Dr. Stanley Jacob. There are also several books written on its use. There are some precautions. You want to have clean skin if you apply it by hand. It can whisk things like motor oil our latex right into your skin. You never want to wear latex gloves as it will eat right through them. I use either clean hands or cotton balls to apply it. I am sure to use a glass container and metal spoon when taking it internally because it can dissolve certain plastics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyl_sulfoxide
This stuff? It may well allow nutrients and vitamins to get to the lens more easily, but it is certainly not something I would touch for self medication. Just look at the chapter toxicity.
Yep, that’s the stuff. Think what you want, but dmsso has many remarkable healing properties. There are several books you can read about its use. Watch the old 60 Minutes video with Dr. Stanley Jacob, an early pioneer of its use. You will be amazed and find that your fear is unwarranted.
Dear Malcolm,
I am copying an e-mail I thought you should see :
| To | London@rochealthservices.com London@rochealthservices.com | | CC | David Ingram davidfingram@aol.com |
Dear Dr Malhotra, I have noticed a discontinuity in the available statistics for younger adults who have died after being transferred to intensive care. I am an FFPM with a physiology degree (with biochemistry) a diploma in clinical Pharmacology and A-level statistics. I have been a research based physician since about 1966 and have been involved in most areas of medicine including virology and vaccines. I have noted that to disagree with government interpretation of data is not permitted by the media since March 2020. It is government intention to renew this legislation before 30 September 2021 when the current regulation expires. My understanding is that 1: on entering intensive care all current medication is stopped. 2: the entry portal for Sars-cov2 (and all other betacoronaviruses) is via the ACE receptors. 3: a % of younger patients with hypertension will have been treated with an ACE-inhibitor 4: most deaths from Covid-19 are due to a cytokine storm
The consequence of this, in my opinion, is that the inhibitor making cell entry poor will be withdrawn allowing a surge in viral replication followed by a surge in cytokines that produce the fatal storm. I would welcome any comment you may wish to make and will be happy to support your efforts in anyway you consider useful. Best wishes David Ingram FFPM (MBBS), BSc, Dip Pharm Med Etc For the record – Vit C is used as an alternative to expensive steroid assays in many animal experiments testing the responsiveness of the Pituitary-Adrenal axis. In other words they are stored and released together. I have been taking supplements for some forty years and 20 years ago added zinc to the mixture on the basis that Zn was of benefit to the epidermis in many skin conditions and that the endodermis (gut lining) aged and became less efficient with age and might be improved with Zn as well. My ‘liver’ spots developing at the time have not yet returned, so this may be of some value to you. Keep up your good work. Very best wishes. David Ingram
David Ingram, may I copy this to ukcolumn.org?
One of the problems with any suggestion that we should take vitamin D is that not everyone can do so. Some feel dreadfully ill if they take even small doses (such as 100 IU). And this intolerance or hypersentivity, or whatever else it is called, seems to apply regardless of form of vitamin D – D2 or D3, tablet, capsule, oil, even topically applied.
This issue appears to be almost totally ignored. And I have never found any useful, applicable advice other than to use ultra-violet (whether from the sun or a lamp).
It seems strange, as you can make well over 20,000 units a day from your skin.
Yes – I agree. And the particular person I know can tan and see vitamin D levels rise. But any supplement causes unpleasant symptoms.
I take 5,000 IU daily this time of year. A bit less in the Summer.
I’ve noted that since I’ve been supplementing I tan more quickly and rarely get a burn, though spending a lot of time outdoors in Summer.
It seems that the skin’s response to supplementation is to deploy those protective pigments quickly to block UVB from making too much D. Protective on all sorts of levels.
I too have noticed that I tan easily now without needing any protection since I’ve been supplementing for the past few years with D3.
Hi Dr. Kendrick,
My PCP/GP had mentioned to me, at my last checkup in March of 2021, that some recent studies (in US I presume) had indicated one should take (orally) no more than 1000IU daily in order to avoid excessive serum 25-hydroxy vit D3 concentration (mine is/was between 60 and 70 ng/mL). I take 5000IU daily.
My reading of the basic (rather than clinical/observational) research has always indicated that the body beautifully regulates maximum serum 25-hydroxy vit D3 concentration, and that it saturates at perfectly safe levels under any reasonable conditions. Only a few cases of gross error in pharmacy with D2 (fungus-derived sterol, I think), resulting in capsules of many, many orders of magnitude in excess of intended/correct quantity, have caused a few historical cases of overdose with toxicity and subsequent recovery in no more than a few weeks, as far as I have read/heard.
Anyway, these studies sound like the typical nonsense but I have never bothered to search for them — too uninterested. Bruce Hollis is one example of a researcher whose pub’s I have read, but I haven’t done so for at least a decade now.
From my more recent reading I have drawn the conclusion that vit D3 is vital for host defenses against respiratory infection(s) in order to maintain adequate liver storage and hence optimum genetic expression of AMPs (antimicrobial peptides) in leukocytes. I would guess this is the key with respect to vit D3 liver storage and host-defenses potency against flu-like illness including CoVID-19.
Impossible for me to quibble with your suggestion of the reason MDs and pharma industry despise so-called vitamins (although this is clearly a misnomer for “D”).
For me, due to a combination of MSK (medullary sponge kidney) and HNF1-alpha diabetes (for which I inject subcutaneous insulin, resulting in supraphysiological levels of renal blood insulin for many hours of a day and especially during prandial intervals), I avoid taking vit C because the body metabolizes it to oxalate. But that is a quite rare pair of conditions, and would not apply to many others. I eat only animal-sourced foods — cannot tolerate any plant-sourced foods any more (at age 63) without dangerous autoimmunities in gut (acute inflammation and bleeding). Associated chronic granulomatous complications would result in loss of nutrient-absorbing tissues and death (due to starvation) in short order — maybe a few years. But I am healthy — no need for extra serum vit C to make up for other sins/maladies/deficiencies, it would appear.
Ken MacKillop: Very interesting. Thank you.
Inability to tolerate plant based foods ??unheard of until now – very new concept for yours truly
It’s not unusual at all, many people suffers from ingesting lectins, phytate or oxalate, but there also are reactions to high level of arsenic and roundup residues.
Life is becoming even more complicated
I believe it’s actually quite easy: we evolved as hunters gatherers, with a diet mostly of meat (fat and organs being the preferred cuts), and the little vegetables and fruits that could be found (wild vegetables and fruits are not what most people think, it would have been very hard to get some nutrients from them).
Also, meals distribution was more akin to an extreme intermittent fasting, with a few days of plentiful food and long days hunting with no food. Anecdotes about Inuits and other tribes still living the traditional way shows that an adult male could easily eat more than 4 kg of meat in a single day, and there are books citing Mongols eating a whole goat in a day.
Thanks- yes that makes sense. Though I take it you mean a number of mongols.
& begs the Q , why are other primates different ?
In what way are they different?
You should ask Darwin, I’m convinced only 50% of his evolution theory is correct… 🙂
Jokes aside, primates are often cited by vegans because of their supposed plant based diet, but most would happily chew on carcasses and hunt small animals given the chance. Humans need a lot of essential fatty acids for the brain to function properly, I know that gorillas are considered “intelligent”, but the requirements for the human brain are probably an order of magnitude higher.
I am going to make a comment on your moniker. In the UK at least, not sure about other countries, the term ‘wog’ is considered extremely racist. I hope you could consider changing it. At one time we had gollywogs which have been banished for the racist connotations. Thank you
Ah yes, Robinson’s jam. One could collect stickers to qualify for a pin badge.
In other countries yes, but here it refers to their countries of origin. I’d guess they or their parents hail from Italy or Greece. WOGBOY is allowed as a numberplate. A UK equivalent would be “A Scot in Macclesfield”.
As I explained to Dr. Kendrick, I’m happy to change my nickname, it would be a sad day though when even in Australia an Italian Australian would not be able to call himself a wog, the PC cops have already too much power.
Jerome Savage: “The Carnivore Code” explains why it can be a good idea to avoid, or reduce consumption of most plants, especially those in the Solanaceae and Brassicaceae, and seeds. I’ve done so for a year and a half, and I’m not dead yet (at least the last time I checked).
Don’t worry Gary, it’s more than 10 years that I eat very little plant food, going for weeks at times without any (good wine doesn’t count, right?), and at 55 I’m in the best shape and health of my life.
Thanks gary – my bread, cake, bun & chocolate consumption has dropped to a minimum over past few years.
My day starts now with a good old fashioned Irish fry up using dripping with lots of delicious streaky bacon, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms (lately from my back garden,) onions and 2 eggs washed down with a hot mug of T. On occasions I have porridge as a starter with local sliced apples.
My trousers are falling off me.
Gary,
I shouldn’t eat plants, I shouldn’t eat pork or chicken because of Omega 6. What the hell DO I eat?
Marty G: Eat plants and pork and chicken if you wish. I don’t eat chicken because the chicken here in the U.S. is perfectly tasteless. I do eat pork (particularly bacon) when I can get it. As far as meat goes, the most healthful comes from ruminants (cow, goat, sheep, bison, etc.) and wild-caught fatty fish. I make exceptions to avoiding plant foods for: whiskey (can’t get whisky), coffee, occasional chocolate, garlic and onions from the garden, and gluten-free cupcakes on special occasions. In exactly three weeks time I will be having a heritage turkey, as we celebrate our most important holiday (unless Brandon makes it illegal in the meantime).
“The Plant Paradox” by Steven Gundry. A cardiologist dedicated to making his profession obsolete. Explains with plenty of science in a readable fashion why many plants we eat cause problems. Has diets to avoid the problems for vegans to carnivores.
Thanks a lot
Talk by Dr Richard Fleming on what’s in the Pfizer ‘vaccine’
https://freeworldnews.tv/watch?id=617805b37031df173f85c2d9
He implicitly condemns some bloggers for scaremongering. Followed by some pictures under the microscope of other objects which definitely shouldn’t be in it, which he calls ‘garbage’.
Also pictures of red blood cells being damaged by the vaccine, clumping a bit and becoming less able to transport oxygen.
Near the end, he suggests Pfizer in the USA is liable for the manufacturing contamination. This is although it’s clearly been made non-liable for harm caused by the *intentional* ingredients of the jab. Seems bizarre, but hopeful for some of the unlucky US consumers who naively thought vaccines were a) safe and b) gave immunity.
No idea if Brits. have any legal comeback for having had vaccine *and* ‘garbage’ injected into their bloodstream. I don’t think we have as many lawyers per square mile (or km).
Is this a) on the scale of the Vioxx disaster or b) higher seems to be the only question now.
Since they are not using BATNEEC (Best Available Technology Not Entailing Excessive Cost) but CATNAP (Cheapest Available Technology Narrowly Avoiding Prosecution), they might have got it a bit too cheap.
Well I’m worried sick for the children. They are racing to make mRNA flu vaccines and children in the UK get annual flu vaccines from age 2-10 years. Someone stop this madness!
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41573-021-00176-7
This could result in more death – among the jabbers.
Someone should tell them they won’t escape retribution.
There’s some more on Vitamin D from Dr David Grimes.
Hope it’s OK to link this?
http://www.drdavidgrimes.com/2021/10/covid-19-vitamin-d-2020-2021-nature-and.html
Of course. He’s a good guy. His information is iseful
I think folks here would agree that taking stains lowers various cholesterols in the body. And vitamin D synthesis in the skin uses a type of cholesterol (7-dehydrocholesterol according to Dr. Grimes). So it would make sense if people taking statins may be more decficient in Vitamin D, than those not taking statins. Now suppose also that a statin user is also applying sunscreen. It makes sense to me that those folks could be very deficient in vitamin D, and be very susceptible to all sorts of maladies. This speculation is probably right out of Dr. Kendrick’s book ( which I read some years back…) ‘The great Cholesterol Con’. I guess I should re-read it…
Good comment. I expected that as statins block the synthesis of 7-dehydrocholesterol, they would block not just cholesterol synthesis but also vitamin D production. But not so. By unforeseen chance, statins do not get into the skin and so 7-DHC synthsis in the skin is not blocked and vitamin D production from the action of UV continues. Good fortune for statins. It is worth reminding readers that statins were developed as antibiotics, but the side-effect of cholesterol-lowering turned out to be more lucrative.
Thanks for your link/reference. I had not been familiar with Grimes. Reading his article now. Looks reasonable, certainly.
The only big quibble I have, and I think it is just so fundamental and essential and underrecognized, is Grimes’ use of the term “mibrobe” (actually, “microbial epidemic”) to refer to virus and viral respiratory pathogens. Viruses/virions are indeed pathogens, but they are not microbes which are cellular “living” organisms — I looked up a definition online at random just to check to be sure, once again.
The lack of recognition of the fundamental difference between a piece of what began as cellular debris containing a core of nucleic acids, and thereafter managed to persist in one or more host species by means of chance suitability (aka natural selection) for host-cellular replication and transmission is, I believe, just critical. Vaccines, indeed, as well as antibiotics and most of medicine have their origins in efficacy as therapies and prophylactics for true cellular pathogens — e.g. bacteria such as the tetanus microbes Clostridium tenani.
The efficacy of some vaccines for conditions of viral pathogenecity, such as polio(virus) and measles, is relatively undisputed. But for flu-like conditions efficacy is generally pretty poor or unacceptable. Flu itself is the one, probably, with best efficacy in the group so that there is a bit of public health epidemic management/diminishment to be had, albeit pretty limited. Flu itself seems to be relatively potently humorally antigenic, while CoVs are probably the most impotent of all in this way.
The thing in common with the flu-like illnesses is likely that potential, and most likely, cause of death remains in lung, involving tissues that necessarily (for function) have poor exposure to blood in particular, albeit less so for/to lymph. Hence, as exocytosis continues to occur in these tissues, replicated viral load is less “reachable” by antibodies and leukocytes that would be attracted from the tagging/coating of the pathogen. And of course virions are just tiny — nanoscopic — compared to any cellular pathogen or true microbe. That makes humoral response a lot less potentially effective.
It is true that maybe the single largest cause of death from betacoronviruses is microclotting, and of course this is an endothelial (and hence, blood/microvascular) phenomenon. But this comes later, and lags the replication in the less reachable tissues of lower lung dedicated to gaseous (O2 and CO2) exchange between air and erythrocytes. Immune response is a race between pathogen and host defenses writ large (including intracellular ones, much more vital for viruses than for microbes). Giving the pathogen a big head start is a big problem.
This is why vit D, so important in upregulating potency of AMPs via the leukocytes, has outsize importance for the lower-lung gaseous exchange tissues. At least this is so in my own opinion, but I have heard a few MDs (e.g. Sucharit Bhakdi, who happens to have taught immunology for several decades) allude indirectly/partially to this too.
These (above) are just fundamental factors of cellular biology and immunology that I rarely see/hear anyone discuss. Mike Yeadon is one guy, in UK, who has done so. One of the very few. I don’t think that a guy like Fauci even does, or ever has, understand/understood any of this. Not one whit. Nor could he care any less — his balliwick is fraud from the perch of bureaucracy and padding his pockets thereby. Others (e.g. Drosten) do so from perches in academia and similar so-called “research” institutions, joined at the hip to goverment(s).
The basic mechanisms of pathogenicity of viruses, compared to microbes, are like night and day. They just are not much comparable as far as I can see. Medicine and society and governments and institutions and bureaucracies seem incapable of recognizing the difference. This is, and has been, catastrophic for societies.
I may be wrong with previous comments, I repeated the mantra that soils are depleted of vital nutrients, but a bit of research shows that this statement can be attributed to the supplement industry.
If soils were depleted then plants wouldn’t grow, then the next question is are the new varieties of fruit and vegetables been engineered to grow in poorer soils?
This a deep field and needs more investigation.
Cookie,
It’s quite possible that the proportions of minerals in soils can change without necessarily depleting the soils of their original nutrients. Of course, farming practices can do both. It’s quite easy to deplete soils of nitrogen and it’s easy to add nitrogen into soils. Adding sodium or potassium nitrate changes the proportion of calcium and magnesium relative to sodium and potassium. I haven’t researched whether any research has been done about that.
I suspect that the GMO have done some nasty things to our gut biome.
Soils become depleted of minerals by taking out and not adding back, aka poor farming practices. Also, crops bred for size tend to increase the carbohydrate content but not the mineral content, i.e. our food is becoming obese as well as us.
Dirt Poor: Have Fruits and Vegetables Become Less Nutritious?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss/
“Davis and his colleagues chalk up this declining nutritional content to the preponderance of agricultural practices designed to improve traits (size, growth rate, pest resistance) other than nutrition.”
This quote from the referenced article points at GMO and improper trait selection rather than at soil depletion. Fun fact: minerals migrate in the soil. Even from rock into soil. Mineral migration can go upwards.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0375674297000459
If you want to point the finger at something, aim it at food preparation that removes skins from fruit and vegetables that have most of the nutrients.
Drinking juice instead of eating fruit with skins like berries and apples…peeling carrots…mashed potatoes without skins.
Martin, ‘obese ‘ in terms of modern crop production is a great descrition for the poor quality of foodstuffs commonly available today. I would also add that peeling and discarding skins from fruits and veggies became popular when, sadly, we learned that the skins and growing tips of produce retains concentrated levels of all manner of chemicals that could not be simply washed off. Even ‘organic’ produce is permitted to use certain chemicals. Another example is unwaxed lemons which would seem a good choice, but just read the label to see what has replaced the wax!
Yes, depletion can occur, but for a farmer it’s important to distinguish between deficient and depleted. Soils and substrates differ enormously in their natural, intrinsic chemical composition. You can force crops requiring magnesium to grow in magnesium deficient soils by adding magnesium to the soil, but it’s an uphill battle every year. If you have a soil naturally high in Mg, then after decades of cropping arrowroot you may end up with soil that’s depleted. A few years of cropping something else will probably allow the soil to be repleted with Mg from the substrate.
The smart thing is to grow what the soil is capable of producing naturally, with some crop rotation or fallowing. With present day soil analysis techniques there’s no excuse for trying to grow the wrong crop.
Vitamin C, which consists entirely of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is synthesised in plants from simple sugars (also comprising only C, O and H) made by photosynthesis. I would suggest any vitamin C levels are due entirely to the variety of the fruit (some orange varietals have a tenth the C of others) and it’s age/ripeness rather than soil mineral content.
Many crops nowadays are grown hydroponically, that is, they are grown with a predetermined mix of chemicals in water. In greenhouses. With artificial heat and light. So we can eat them all year round. The Dutch are into this in a big way, the natgas prices are forcing closures of Europe’s food greenhouses. 80% of Aussie blueberries are hydroponic, and while I’m sure that even so they are still “a source high in vitamin C” they’re tasteless. So something is missing from the water alchemy.
Fallow = bare soil = lack of sunlight harvesting. Soil covered with plants in the growth phase = sunlight harvesting = carbon sequestration. Sequestering the carbon is important as carbon is primarily what plants are made of.
No no no! Fallow is left to weeds and anything. Or just grass if it’s a dairy paddock, just leave the cows off it for a year. Yes yes yes! Carbon sequestration is critical and underrated (or totally ignored). Peter Andrews wrote a book about the importance of carbon. Back from the Brink. He used to sow scotch thistles for their deep roots (to bring nutrients to the surface), and just slash the crop so it would reseed (fallow, not cropping) and carbonise the soil and within 18 months could transform derelict farmland to lush grassland, with natural water management techniques. If you can do this in Australia, you can do it anywhere.
I’ve recently been to meetings of a local “Growers’ Group” which has just formed to help people begin the road to being a bit more self-sufficient when it comes to healthy and untainted food supplies, being as we don’t know whether we’re going to have problems in the future.
One thing that one member talked to us about what “Shumei Natural Agriculture”. It made a lot of sense to many of us, and nobody else in the group had heard about it before. There is a farm near Amesbury, Hampshire and several videos on the internet about how to use their techniques and work with nature rather than trying to interfere too much, even with natural organic fertilizers and crop rotation which, they say, isn’t necessary or beneficial – as shown by their impressive results. I don’t know if any of the produce has been analysed for nutritional content but the general idea is that using seeds obtained from the plants growing on the site, over generations, this produces strong plants that are accustomed to their environment, they have longer roots so they can obtain minerals from deeper parts of the ground and all compost is produced from plants grown on the site and not brought in from outside. Additional benefits are that pests and diseases are less likely to be a problem as the plants have “evolved” stronger to resist them. Fascinating subject.
https://shumeinaturalagriculture.com/about/
As for hydroponically-grown foods, I agree that it relies on the provision of whatever nutrition is in liquid they are grown in, which may not be optimal, and the lack of direct sunlight may also be a factor in whether the food ends up being really healthy or not. I must say I’m not keen on it myself, from an instinctive perspective!
* “was” not “what” (2nd paragraph)
By missing out the animal manure they are excluding what is part of nature. Saa Gabe Brown’s videos I have posted earlier, and Allan Savoury.
Yes, you would think that not adding animal manure would be a problem but maybe not:
https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article4559-trust-the-soil-cherish-the-crop.html
Analysis of the soil after 5 years on the potato patch at the UK farm showed increased microbial activity, although I don’t know if any of the plant produce has been analysed for nutritional quality.
https://shumeinaturalagriculture.com/about/
anglovizera, Elaine Ingham may be correct in some respects, such as not needing to “add” animal manure’ but if you look at Allan Savoury, Gabe Brown, Ray Archuleta it is more converting some of the growth on the land to manure rather than adding it. This promotes more diversity in the soil, and the next place to look is Kristine Nichols who admits to knowing only a small proportion of what there is to find in a complex system She is an expert on mycorrhizal fungi. https://youtu.be/yX7mS5X34wc Elaine Ingham’s presentation has a problem in that I get the impression she thinks aerobic is good, anaerobic is bad. This would mean curtains for all of us as our digestive system is largely anaerobic.
Re soil: danger of extrapolation from soil to gut microbiome oxygen requirement. Anaerobic is bad for soil fungi but OK for gut bacteria.
Surely animal manure is the epitome of recycling. We had a dairy herd and the muck went on the fields and on the vegetable garden; the best stuff was from the slurry pit in the yard. (My late father once thought that he’d dropped his glasses in the pit and had my brothers down there bailing it out wearing shorts and sandals.)
Soil scientist Dr Elaine Ingham also points out that animal manure isn’t necessary if the soil is cultured properly:
“The only reason the Green Revolution worked is that it fed dirt, not soil. Sustainable intensification? Forget it. It won’t work because it can’t: it still relies on the chemical inputs that destroy soil life. Get your soil biology right, and you don’t need to spread manure, rotate crops or till soil. (At this point, even the organic farmers at the Oxford conference winced.)”
https://sustainablefoodtrust.org/articles/roots-health-elaine-ingham-science-soil/
“Get your soil biology right …..” Riiiight. Abracadabra, soil biology be “Right!”. The reason why the organic farmers were wincing is probably because they know how difficult that is to achieve.
In particular, keeping the carbon content high is difficult as you’re constantly taking carbon out of the soil.
The Shumei method does use compost, and therefore carbon is added back as well as minerals, the only stipulation being that the compost is made using the plant products from the same site.
That’s fascinating! Because, Amesbury (Wiltshire) is the oldest still inhabited town in England having been settled about 11,000 years ago. So if there was to be any proof of that sort of agriculture working like that you might expect to find it there. I’m a bit of an pre-history buff.
Based on what I read, soil depletion is a well known phenomenon and is not supplement industry propaganda. It can be traced back to the “Green Revolution”. Monocrops and dramatically increased yields are some of the factors driving it.
It’s not quite so simple, Cookie. As early as the 1960s the nutritionist Adelle Davis was warning of soils depleted of minerals – or, just as bad, the fungi that coexist with plant roots and often feed them minerals in suitable form. Hence her chapter “Which Apricot? Grown Where?” and her story about the perfectly normal looking and tasting oranges that had zero Vitamin C. I don’t think she was in the pay of anyone.
You suggest that “If soils were depleted then plants wouldn’t grow”, but again it’s not so simple. Sometimes plants deprived of most of the normal minerals grow very well – like weeds – but do not nourish humans very well. In fact there is research to show that even human children fed on nutrient-deficient diets can grow unusually big, but without the strength and energy that would normally accompany such size.
Evolution typically operates over millions of years, although sometimes it can be remarkably swift – as with the coloration of butterflies in the industrial North of England. And we should also remember that all grains come from grasses, which few primates and no humans ever evolved to digest. All plants contain defensive toxins evolved to harm animals grazing on them. Cows and horses and sheep have good systems to protect them against such toxins; humans, not so much. See Dr William Davis’ “Wheat Belly” books and blog, the jaminets’ “Perfect Health Diet”, etc.
Of course if you want to obtain food which has almost all the vitamins, minerals, etc. that you need in the right proportions, just tuck into some beef, lamb or venison.
Sorry: my previous reply was meant to be addressed to adsgamer, but I was distracted by Cookie’s name in the first line of his comment.
If I remember the story correctly, the evolution of butterflies of North England took time by their standards. It was over the span of 40 generations. In human terms it would be around 1,000 years. Which puts to question the idea that humans didn’t have time to evolve to be able to eat grains since they began eating them around 12,000 years ago, possibly longer. Humans definitely developed ability to digest lactose after domesticating animals and I think it happened after domestication of grains. So, why wouldn’t the same happen to grains?
“Humans definitely developed ability to digest lactose after domesticating animals …” Not.
Lactose is the sugar in human milk. In terms of our evolution, it pre-dates us.
The fact that lactose is in human milk doesn’t mean that adult humans could digest lactose. Infants could but not adults. There was no reason for this as adult humans didn’t have access to human milk past lactation. Adult humans developed ability to digest lactose with the domestication of some mammals: cattle, sheep, goats, etc. I learned about it from a book but this has been well known among geneticists. Here is one link:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/10/141021125935.htm
It says that ancient Europeans were lactose intolerant for 5,000 years after adopting agriculture. Probably because it took them that long to domesticate animals and get access to milk.
In my opinion, this is a common problem with all the diet theories claiming that if we could only get to macronutirent composition of 20,000 years ago, things would be good again. There was never one macronutrient composition for all humans and things evolve constantly. Butterflies in England during Industrial revolution are a good example. It took them 40 generations to change colors. Why can’t it take us 40 generations to adopt to eating grains?
I don’t think that is a valid comparison. Humans have the ability to digest lactose from birth – continuing to digest lactose form a different source is a totally different development to evolving the ability to digest a totally new food source. For instance, how long would it take us to evolve the ability to digest grass which, being cellulose, is a very complex carb?? Needing to add three new stomachs, regurgitation, etc? OK, so grains are another form of sugar, but they’re complex carbohydrates too rather than simple (lactose) so although our system has some experience in dealing with them it’s not what it’s designed for.
If our digestive system isn’t designed for grains, why are there millions of people who eat processed grains with no ill effects, provided the grains are grown and processed without cutting corners? I don’t think there’s one unchanging design. Biological systems change in response to changing circumstances, especially when those circumstances persist over thousands of years.
That’s a good question, although perhaps it should read “why are there millions of people who eat processed grains with SEEMINGLY no ill effects”? I used to think the same way. After all, I have been devoted to bread, pizza, pasta for over 60 years and I’m still considered healthy and active. However, having managed to eliminate grains from my diet for the last 3 to 4 weeks, I’m noticing an improvement in my energy levels and sleeping. A niggling gut pain has gone. So perhaps the ill effects come on so slowly as to be unnoticeable or just accepted as part of the aging process.
We are designed to process some simple sugars like lactose, and have adapted to complex sugars like starch and grains. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we do so without problems, just as with a bit of tweaking you can run a petrol engine on paraffin, or alcohol.
Steven Gundry’s book “The Plant Paradox” explains why in detail. He’s a cardiac surgeon trying to eliminate the need for his profession through diet. He explains the science behind his ideas and gives many examples of people cured of a whole range of diseases by adopting his diet, which can be vegan or carnivorous.
And we’re all different. Why would one of our kids be slightly allergic to shellfish? Can’t detect any hereditary trait. But some chemical in them causes a mild rash. Fish are fine.
It would be interesting to see a head to head comparison study of a carnivorous diet vs a carnivorous diet with complex carbs. Maybe, one day we will get an answer.
Or possibly a mutation or three or methylation of lactose-regulating genes caused some people to become lactose intolerant to varying degrees. Some people can still drink milk as adults.
We start digesting simple sugars and carbohydrates as we chew our food, thanks to amylase in saliva. This indicates to me that ability to digest these food components had survival value and has always been part of the human digestive apparatus. Grains might have been scarce during the ice age, but probably not in the tropics, and anyway it is possible that ability to digest grains was conserved during the ice age although not used.
didn’t humans develop the ability to digest lactose when they nursed from their mothers?
Grains on the other hand…
Lactose is the sugar (carbohydrate) found in milk and milk products. It is present in the milk of all mammals but is not found anywhere else in nature. Breast milk contains around 7 percent lactose. Most cows’ and goats’ milk based infant formulas contain a similar percentage of lactose as breast milk.
It is true that human infants are able to digest lactose, however, until domestication of animals, most adult humans would lose that ability. In other words, the majority of the adult world was lactose intolerant until the domestication of cows, goats, etc. At least, that’s what I remember reading. I think it was in the book “Paleo Myths”.
I don’t remember the timeline for this, I want to say 9,000 years ago? Which is much later than domestication of wheat and other grains.
It would be expected that you’d lose the ability to process lactose when breastfeeding stopped. But if mother’s milk was supplemented by other lactose milks why wouldn’t lactase continue to be produced? Use it, or lose it.
Domestication of grains only started after the ice age finished, so c.10,000 years ago. Cattle around the same time up to 7,000 years ago, depending on locality, but as to when we started to use them for milk is another matter.
Here’s an interesting article about dealing with lactose intolerance: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-answer-to-lactose-intolerance-might-be-in-mongolia?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
Human babies produce lactase, the enzyme which digests lactose in milk. But many people lose the ability to produce lactase as adults. Here in South Africa the majority of our black population are lactose-intolerant. But they are able to consume “amasi” which is a cultured milk product similar to yoghurt and is low in lactose.
I myself became allergic to milk in my 60s after drinking it all my life. It started giving me terrible diarrhea. Now I also drink amasi, and use it in baking where milk is required. It’s rather nice.
According to paleontologists, before humans domesticated animals for milk production, most adult humans would lose their ability to digest lactose. See the link I posted in an earlier response
It’s not only the supplement industry, I’ll see if I can find some references, but some background about soil ecology and plant nutrition can be found from Alan Savoury, Ray Archuletta, Gabe Brown and many others. Particularly Gabe Brown, look up some of his videos and see what he can grow with 16 inches of rain a year, with no artificial fertiliser, and compare with his neighbours who look for disaster relief when their crops fail.
Isn’t it interesting that the term “misinformation” has been used to an astonishing degree in mass media to censor doctors and scientists when they speak about the pandemic. I wonder where on earth that term could have originated?
“COMMUNICATION IN A PANDEMIC”
“Effective communication during public health events can be critical to public health
response efforts. Public health messages help inform the public about risks and protective
actions and, done correctly, are a critical component of community engagement and the
buildup of public trust. Yet, true information about public health concerns is increasingly
competing with false messages that can damage public confidence in health interventions
and health authorities. _These false messages are often defined as misinformation_,
erroneous information shared through various channels, and disinformation, purposefully
spread false or misleading information. The information environment is increasingly made
up of a mix of information coming from web sources and other media, in addition to
historical sources such as print and TV news media. However, the influence of social media
has made the spread of false information even more pernicious.”
Click to access comms-fact-sheet-191014.pdf
Misinformation in “social media” written by individuals may often be from confusion or ignorance, not surprising when the misinformation in the same media spread by government agents is malicious intent to deceive, er, and confuse. Expect confusion when COP26 finishes in Glasgow, when all the 30,000 imported extras who don’t have to abide by silly requirements go home. The demands will be everyone has to comply with the crap of last winter when the restrictions are reintroduced. DO NOT COMPLY!!!
theasdgamer you may be interested in watching this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNg3Vnfu4Pk from 00:43:00.
Originally “misinformation” meant statements that happened to be wrong, usually unintentionally. Then “disinformation” was introduced by governments to mean “deliberate falsehoods to be passed off as truth”.
The state’s equivalent of marketing and advertising, only a lot less innocuous.
Event 201 (aka the pandemic practice run by some of us), per the Johns Hopkins website, was scripted by Johns Hopkins, the World Economic Forum, and the Gates Foundation.
Among the leaders (called “players”) listed on the website are folks from marketing organizations specializing in branding, communication, and advertising, the CDC, the CIA, the WEF, the UN, the Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins, Johnson & Johnson, etc.
Business, NGOs, and government. I don’t think that the government is any worse than NGOs.
Of course, pointing out all this information hidden in plain sight means that I will be called a “conspiracy theorist”, Also obvious is that only the weak-minded will be fooled by this smear.
It’s only the ‘conspiracy theorists’ who know what’s going on.
Conspiracy theory = Spoiler alert
When the conspiracy has been published, it’s no longer a theory.
Misinformation and disinformation is now being rebranded by Soros as ‘Good Information’.
Dr John Campbell talking about low vitamin D and increased mortality:
Quote: “Anyway, how could the Inuit possibly have known where vitamin C was concentrated?”
a) Taste – when you are truly deficient in something, you tend to know from the taste of something that what you need is present – e.g. craving marmite (presumably for B vitamins) or geophagia for minerals.
b) Through some unknown mechanism – e.g. how did the amazonians ‘know’ to put the exact two plants together to create ayahuasca? (maybe a single plant psychedelic taught them).
c) Or as some have already stated, they just noticed it either helped people or the people who could stomach it didn’t have the problems.
I have done a quick research on soils and farming practices, what I have miss read is how good farmers are at reading their soils and they recognize when there is nutrient deficiencies, farmers aren’t the problem if foods lack nutrient content…I can only conclude that it is the seed stock that they are forced to use that are engineered for look not content, I suppose that is the next stop in my nutrient hunt.
I would suggest most “farmers” do not recognise nutrient deficiencies, except those nutrients that affect the yield. Some do, but even they will be getting help from soil analysis companies as micronutrients won’t always give signs of deficiencies. Then there are the excesses. Yeild does not necessarily indicate correct nutrient levels, it just fulfils a perceived requirement. Lower yield may me more nutritious, in that there is a better balance of nutrients. This is complicated, and I cannot explain it in a short reply. The more I find out, the more I realise I don’t know. https://livingwebfarms.org/multimedia/videos/expert-talks-discussions/cattle-mineral-man/ Is a 1 hr + video about cattle nutrition. Similar complexities affect people, but not necessarily in the same way.
The current main farming practices are not introducing life into the soil, and life is what’s needed to supply the nutrients to the plants The life needs water, is there enough? https://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI.
Here is a 2 1/2 hr video which is the first of a series https://youtu.be/uUmIdq0D6-A this shows the approach which does show an understanding of plant nutrients.
A few days of video binging should give you a starter.
Yes it is a complex field and farmers aren’t the problem, the depth and knowledge of soils they have far exceeds what I believed they knew.
An example is tilling practice, too deep and the microbes are exposed to to much oxygen and this has a feast famine effect, so shallow tilling is a preferable option.
Time between harvesting and consumption also sees certain nutrients reduces while others increase?
I believe it is a demographic problem, we are now bouncing against soil limitations as they try to supply 8 billion people with their needs as well as the animal kingdom.
It’s about time the world got together and had a serious chat about numbers.
Here’s a serious chat about numbers https://youtu.be/sI1C9DyIi_8, and here (again) demonstrates most farmers haven’t as much knowledge as some may think https://youtu.be/uUmIdq0D6-A. Watch all 5 parts, and then some more.
Absolutely. The classic is the protein content in wheat. That used to be all that mattered. Probably still is. The higher the protein content, the stronger the flour. So farmers look to optimise protein content ‘cos that what brings in the dough (pun intended!). They can’t afford to worry about other nutrients.
High protein durum wheat is used for bread and pasta. Lower protein wheat is used for cake flour. That’s why you have to add egg to cake mix — to replace the protein that’s missing from the flour.
Climate and soil conditions determine whether you can grow durum wheat or not.
They will have to start worrying about what protein soon as the proteins in the modern short straw wheats seem to be associated with increasing gluten intolerance, leading to leaky gut, leading to chronic health problems. Oh, wait, that is what the industrial complex wants to ensure people become fodder for their sickness treatments, and the depopulation, maths provided by Dr. Albert Bartlett.
As Doctor Kendrick presciently said, US hospitals are following in the footsteps of the NHS in denying health care to selected patient groups. This actually came from Ezekiel Emmanuel, an official in the Obama administration.
https://www.wnd.com/2021/10/exposed-inhumane-lethal-covid-protocol-hospitals/
I had a quick look at this and was appalled; not a very large window of life for medical treatment. What is this world coming to? My OH refused to believe or listen when I read this article. Perhaps that is part of the problem
A text from a listener featured on today’s ukcolumn news program said that when trying to book an appointment they were told it was not possible as they had many sick children to deal with. Sick from emergency use authorised substances perhaps?
What is OH?
OH is usually “other half” (husband, wife, partner etc…)
Other half
Your OH is likely used to articles being hyperbolic clickbait. However, the author, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, is far from hyperbolic and is a past director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons as well as president and CEO of the Truth for Health Foundation, etc., etc., etc.
Elizabeth Lee Vliet’s credentials:
https://www.truthforhealth.org/about-us-truth-for-health-foundation/
Dr. Vliet’s organization published the following article, which fans of Dr. Kendrick will appreciate due to his many dealings with critics of his own articles.
“The Attack on Scientific Dissent Becomes Ever More Brutal”
https://www.truthforhealth.org/2021/10/brutal-attacks-on-scientific-dissent-costs-lives/
Maybe your OH can be persuaded to have another look.
” My OH refused to believe or listen when I read this article”.
Indeed. Most people instinctively perform a kind of mental triage when they hear or see what look like extravagant claims. The calculus is something like this: “How likely is it that the government, the NHS, our GP, and the media are all lying to us in a coordinated way? Probably next to impossible. Therefore I don’t even need to pay attention, as it can’t be true”.
Also, if you did accept the possibility – or even consider it – the emotional impact would be unpleasant. Rather like considering the real possibility that thermonuclear bombs will detonate within a few miles of your home.
The only practical solution, I imagine, is to confront them with lies and outrages that they cannot overlook. But this is where government control of the media plays an important part. Until a person starts to give much higher credence to what they see on Dr Kendrick’s blog, Dr No’s blog, Paul Craig Roberts, and the many other informed and accurate sources online – and probably stops paying attention to the “mainstream media” – it will be hard to get them even to engage.
You are completely correct, Prudence Kitten. It is ‘why would the governments of the world all be trying to damage their people and their economies?’ Why did the Third Reich kill 11m people with little resistance from the mainstream?
I find it difficult to even broach the subject of jibjabs as almost every one I know has had one so I am loath to mention the adverse events or analyses which give a minus benefit. How would they cope with this information? I suppose the same way as OH; deny its validity.
I beg Dr Kendrick’s indulgence and the patience of other commenters to add one more relevant quotation. It bears on the reasons why the truth is so easily concealed, and voices trying to explain it cannot be heard.
“There was once an interview with Jeff Greenfield in which he was asked why I was never asked onto Nightline. He gave a good answer. He said the main reason was that I lacked concision. I had never heard that word before. You have to have concision. You have to say something brief between two commercials.
“What can you say that’s brief between two commercials? I can say Iran is a terrible state. I don’t need any evidence. I can say Ghaddaffi carries out terror. Suppose I try to say the US carries out terror, in fact it’s one of the leading terrorist states in the world. You can’t say that between commercials. People rightly want to know what do you mean. They’ve never heard that before. Then you have to explain. You have to give background. That’s exactly what’s cut out. Concision is a technique of propaganda. It ensures you cannot do anything except repeat clichés, the standard doctrine, or sound like a lunatic”.
– Noam Chomsky (interview with Laura Flanders, 24/4/2012).
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/30/talking-with-chomsky/
It looks like Chomsky has lost the plot:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/noam-chomsky-unvaccinated-should-remove-themselves-from-the-community-access-to-food-their-problem
That’s because the unvaxxxed are racist. https://www.bitchute.com/video/SP7NEBfuTPqe/
Always found preacher men a tad distasteful.
sticky: Yes, he’s gone off the rails. Sad to see, as he’s had some interesting things to say in his professional life.
AhNotepad Ha! Ha! Ha! You only have to read some of the comments below to be reminded that most people are stupid.
Prudence,
“coordinated way?”
It’s difficult to avoid seeing the coordination if you look at what is published online on Event 201. That is how all the international players were able to get on the same page, excepting Sweden…then Norway, Finland, and Denmark…then?
True, asdgamer. But what Penny I were agreeing upon (I think) was that most people never see those revelations published online. They are content with the BBC, the Times or the Guardian, or the Daily Mail. Even Private Eye is now an establishment outlet.
I think that most people try to avoid thinking if at all possible and avoid any sort of skepticism or nonconformism.
Hospitals in the US get paid by the day, so why would they want to reduce patient load through denying care. If anything, they would string along patients that had no chance of recovery to collect more money. Is it that demanding to take care of an unconscious person on a ventilator and IV?
But patients add work for hospital administrators because clinical staff adds complexity and overhead that doesn’t benefit them. Administrators have problems controlling clinical staff because they don’t understand the technical details.
However, you can’t justify high salaries without having employees. So the strategy of hospital administrators is to let the administrative staff grow and reduce the clinical staff, raising staff overhead per patient.
Hospitals need a Bureau of Sabotage to reduce the parasitism by administrators. [reference to “The Dosadi Experiment” which has a lot of useful wisdom regarding the pandemic]
“Hospitals need a Bureau of Sabotage…”
Damn straight! I look forward intensely to seeing Boris Johnson talking on TV while purple snakes sprout from his head and writhe about his face.
Where are you when we desperately need you, Jorj X. McKie? (And bring along Keila Jedrik, in case we need some carefully applied ultra-violence).
That sounds like the episode of ‘yes minister’ where a ‘fully functioning’ hospital with no patients was resisting accepting any because they would reduce efficiency.
Thanks
Apologies if someone else has posted this link, I do go through all the posts but sometimes miss things.
Thanks Penny,
My first thought was that ‘lower class people’ would probably have lower vitamin concentrations in their blood, and would also have worse health generally. Remember Dr Kendrick’s example of the studies into hormone replacement therapy which looked promising until a randomly controlled trial was done, when the relationship was reversed because better off women were more likely to opt for HRT. However, later in the video, he indicated that the data was adjusted for a whole range of factors, including household income and education – so I guess that makes the relationship pretty robust!
I get the impression that COVID has persuaded a lot of people to take vitamin D supplements – so I wonder if we will see a drop in the death rate?
This is good, and right on topic (UTTER INCOMPETENCE!):
https://healthinsightuk.org/2021/10/29/vitamin-c-saga-how-a-small-expert-group-fought-back-against-nhs-misinformation/
Mr. Ogden, I am surprised (as I sit here on the M25, blocking traffic west of London) that you would post a link with content of misinformation suggesting the official narrative is wanting. The governments all round the world are desperately trying to save their people from living longer than they have to, (have I got that right?) and are trying to ease the burden of living in this world which should have ended years ago, according to Al Gore, Obama, Hansen, Mann and all the other 97% experts who are trying to warn us of the hell which must have happened in 2014 or earlier.
Much information about vitamin C as a treatment may come from as early as the 1930s, so it is old and no longer valid. Not like the sound information from Edward Fraud Jenner and his excellent smallpox treatment, subsequently followed by the other arm spear substances, none of which cause adverse effects. Any problems are because the patients had underlying conditions (probably genetic) which were not known at the time. Just look at the number of existing genetic conditions which must be the cause of problems with the current deadly disease. Some people are even described as “healthy”, how bad can it get?
PS where has Fast Eddy gone?
I don’t think that is incompetence at all, I am sure this was done deliberately!
Thanks Gary. It may interest you to know that Dr K originally plugged healthinsightuk almost 8 years to the day:
Healthinsightuk is a good resource. Jerome used to contribute on here – I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t still check this blog out – though compared to the ‘olden’ days it is difficult to read all responses now as there are so many.
I’ve gone back into my Amazon history to find out when I purchased Dr K’s ‘The Great Cholesterol Con’- January 2013. So it would have been later that year I got my Dad off statins (he was having the classic muscle + memory problems). A sibling gave me the ‘if he has a heart attack …’ – he didn’t & he still plays golf now in his 80’s (at the time he was talking of giving up). Apologies for this aside – on my advice he is not jabbed for coronavirus and I have him, & Mum, and anyone that will accept the advice (& evidence that I can provide) supplementing on Vit D (D3/K2). [I had a relative today tell me that Vit D can damage kidneys and the heart- I’ll stop at that.] We all got the lurgi in September including said sibling and their partner. Water off a ducks back (all unjabbed). Dad did get a secondary infection which affected his recovery but is OK now.
Aside II. I do try & avoid Amazon, though not as often as I could, and went to a Currys in town to buy some electronics, bit cheaper than Amazon, to do my bit to ‘help’ the high street – I had a couple questions about the options & the technology and the advice that I got person in store would have made me a fraud if I’d then gone online to make any saving.
Aside III. There are others with big twitter followings, plus their own successful websites, who used to contribute on here but I haven’t noticed to do so for sometime, albeit have seen them plug Dr K blog entries from their twitters.
Aside IV. As a contribution to this particular blog, I take Vit C daily. I have a stockpile of 3,000 off 1g tablets (thanks to the Holland and Barrett penny sale of the 500 tubs with a 20% off couple) mainly to give away to my parents plus when my grown up kids visit and ‘can more than afford their own’ but will still dish them out. I buy the power as it is cheaper & without fillers (albeit the H&B tablets have bioflavinoids and rose hips). Last power that I purchased was sodium ascorbate (tasteless unlike the tartness of ascorbic acid). When at home / working from home, I directly consume a tip of a teaspoonful full in the morning followed by a double cream, with teaspoon of collagen, coffee plus 85 or 90% chocolate. Later in the day I’ll have some de-thawed frozen blackberries (from the fields), blueberries (Aldi is cheapest), or mixed seeds – onto which I’ll sprinkle the Vit C (plus potassium bicarbonate and often cacoa powder).
ASIDE V – as I’ve been typing this (which I do in Word to paste into the blog) I’ve refreshed and seen Notepads reply (I didn’t initially work out whether Notepad had been drinking or whether it was just me – though on 2nd reflection Notepad is being sarci].
Not incompetence, there is an agenda at play, particularly when it comes to the C-Flu. Follow the money. Shame on the NHS.
We have evolved to not depend on vitamin C.
https://www.kevinstock.io/health/do-humans-need-vitamin-c/
“When we look at animals that make their own vitamin C, we find they make less of it when carbohydrates are low.
Which is interesting – low carbohydrates would indicate a lower vitamin C intake from the diet and presumably a higher need to make it endogenously.
Yet we see the opposite.
The more carbohydrates/glucose an animal eats, the more vitamin C it gets from its food, AND the more it makes endogenously.
This suggests that more vitamin C is needed in a glucose-based metabolism.
It also suggests that Vitamin C requirements may be less in low-carbohydrate conditions.”
October 31, 2021
I came across this book:
Natural Anti-Viral Self Defense 200923 Steven Wm. Fowkes
today as a PDF at:
projectwellbeing.com
This is mostly about vitamins (inc. C and D) and minerals supplements, and the like. Many references to studies are cited. Instructions for bowel-tolerance dosing of Vitamin C against the Covid19, or other viral challenges, are given. This is over 200 pages long; instructions for patronage are given; the PDF is as of today available online; it does not seem to be available as a print book, but only as an ongoing online project. I believe that Fowkes is one of the most knowledgeable guys out there re mega-dosing with C, D, etc..
As usual, thank you Dr. Kendrick
Nov. 1, 2021
For anyone wanting to dig deep into vitamin and mineral supplementation, this is at YouTube:
**********************************
” #Triagetheory #supplements #dietBruce Ames on Triage Theory, Longevity Vitamins & Micronutrients
129,443 viewsFeb 11, 2015
FoundMyFitness
In this video Dr. Rhonda Patrick interviews Dr. Bruce Ames about his triage theory, which he proposes that the body has developed a rationing response to shortages of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) throughout evolution. When cells run out of a vitamin or mineral, that scarce micronutrient is allotted to proteins (in the body) essential for short-term survival……”
*****************************************
As far as supplementation for prevention, and treatment, of the Covid19, my go-to place is the FLCCC Alliance: see their Protocols. Requirements are variable, depending on many factors. (That’s why the “bowel-tolerance dosing” for Vitamin C, which is detailed in the paper by Steve Fowkes that I cited above, works well for some.)
Thx, Dr.K
I’m not particularly a fan of FLCCC since they use the calcitriol form of vitamin D. I think that that’s a mistake.
Unfortunately, Fowkes confuses D3 with calcifediol aka “25(OH)D” . But then, vitamin D terminology is confusing.
Look at pubchem’s synonyms for calcifediol!!!
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Calcifediol#section=NCI-Thesaurus-Code
Since I have several links, I have to break this up into several posts.
Labs don’t test D3 levels, from what I have seen. They test
calcifediol: https://www.labcorp.com/tests/081950/vitamin-d-25-hydroxy
and
calcitriol: https://www.labcorp.com/tests/081091/calcitriol-1-25-di-oh-vitamin-d
…
Immune cells make their own calcitriol from calcifediol, locally, at the site of infection, bypassing the kidneys.
“In immune cells such as macrophages, expression of CYP27B1, the 25-hydroxyvitamin D 1α-hydroxylase, is induced by immune-specific inputs, leading to local production of hormonal 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25D) at sites of infection, which in turn directly induces the expression of genes encoding antimicrobial peptides. Vitamin D signaling is active upstream and downstream of pattern recognition receptors, which promote front-line innate immune responses. ”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11154-021-09679-5
There’s a lot of valuable info in this article.
I personally us Remag and it works. It is always a fine line between enough and to much. But my cramps are under control and my sleep is much improved. Yes it is expensive but in my opinion worth ever cent/dollar. (I’m an Aussie.) https://rnareset.com/products/remag-magnesium-solution this is where I found this product but I order from supplier in Australia.
Has anyone considered discovering just how much Vitamin C vavious animals create in their bodies, and scaling that up according to body weight to get some idea of how much humans should take?
Do you think that an evolutionary mistake was made.
Andy S, Well I assume so (is there a better explanation), but if humans were eating a lot of fruit at the time, maybe it didn’t matter.
Maybe someone should take the m-RNA that codes for the enzyme that performs the last step, attach it to some P.E.G. and inject it into 7 Billion humans (to get good statistics) as an interesting experiment……. or on second thoughts…!
David, my guess is that our clever bodies did not do too well with eating plants and came up with a better antioxidant. The animals that lost ability to produce c and kept eating plants are not doing better than humans (not the modern ones).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC349151/
Uric acid provides an antioxidant defense in humans against oxidant- and radical-caused aging and cancer: a hypothesis.
You would have to eat piles of fruit all day – and you still wouldn’t get 6 grams of Vitamin C. There is something else that obviously isn’t understood.
Another piece of the puzzle could be nutrition.
Many people following a pure carnivore diet seems to thrive without vitamin C, especially when they have a more natural lifestyle away from the stress caused by artificial lights and EMRs. There seems to be a link between this kind of metabolic stress and vitamin C, so it’s not just diets rich in carbohydrates that requires more of it.
AA is also used for animals, cows for example can require much more vitamin C during periods of stress than they can produce, and it’s quite common to give them up to 400 grams per day for one or two days (that’s usually enough top solve most issues).
The amount of Vit C that other animals make themselves may be optimal, but if the Vit C humans ingest allows them to live past child-rearing stage evolution doesn’t care if it is an optimal quantity. Of course the converse is true as well — animals may produce well more than the optimal quantity but if it doesn’t hinder them it isn’t a problem.
Here’s what goats make:
“Most mammals make their own vitamin C in their liver and step up production when stressed or ill. An adult goat, for instance, manufactures around 13,000 mg daily to maintain optimal health. When faced with a life-threatening infection, however, a goat is thought to produce as much as 100,000 mg of vitamin C daily. ”
https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/6705736.how-vitamin-c-can-cure-what-ails-you/
Hi anglo; re goats, had a glance at the book promo
“Dr Levy believes this genetic defect is the main reason why humans are much more prone to infections and disease than many wild animals.”
Comparing domestic humans to wild animals is a logical fallacy. Try comparing a domestic dog or cat to a wild cousin, both make vit c. The difference is the diet.
“”The chronic underdosing of vitamin C from minimal or no supplementation and from eating depleted food will facilitate the development of nearly all the chronic degenerative diseases that affect man,” says Dr Levy.”
Insulin resistance (metabolic syndrome) is a more likely cause of nearly all of the chronic degenerative diseases.
“He explains that chronic vitamin C depletion is one of the main reasons many common ailments are contracted in the first place and that healthy people should take up to 100 times the 60mg recommended daily amount.”
My favourite main reason that causes common ailments is hyperglycaemia. High glucose can stimulate neutrophils to commit suicide (NETosis) and produce NETs (neutrophil extracellular traps). This is the beginning of inflammation, atherosclerosis and thrombosis. Apparently covid and the vaccine can do the same to neutrophils.
.
Yes and as far as I remember in comparing us with dogs we should be taking 15 g perday
Jack russel?
15 grams of vitamin D per day is a huge amount for a physiological metabolic product. 15milligrams per day might be correct. 200mg is the standard tablet that saturates the body within a few days.
Linus Pauling, the double Nobel Prize winning chemist, recommended about 6 grams per day regularly, and much more in times of infection or stress.
That is the amount recommended by most nutrition expert who understand the importance of vitamins.
I think that he’s talking about vitamin C, not D.
More than one person has done this. Srart with Suzanne Humphries.
I’ve done a search on “how to move away and never be found again” and it came back ‘Forbidden’.
Tish,
I tried it and it worked OK for me, giving me this link:
https://wish.co.uk/blog/disappear-completely-never-found/
I managed to find a cached version of the page you couldn’t access (nor could I, “Forbidden 403”) so here it is, via Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210117223537/https://www.sparefoot.com/self-storage/blog/16897-how-to-disappear-completely/
which is ok, unless you break a leg or need a haircut !
Make sure you have two mirrors, a comb and a pair of scissors. They won’t be much use for leg surgery though.
I’ve cut my own hair for over 30 years and I’m not a hairdresser. You get to know your own hair better than any hairdresser can know it. Modesty forbids that I send any photos.
I have gained some really useful knowledge about nutrition since I first visited Dr Kendrick’s blog a year or so ago; not just from Dr K, but from a host of curious, intelligent folk – avid researchers – determined to unravel the puzzle of what goes on in these incredibly complex systems that enable us to sustain life and purpose.
I had been taking vitamin C for years, but usually no more than 1g a day. I was a heavy smoker for more than 40 years, and knew both that Vitamin C is important for gum health, and that smoking causes gum recession (probably by upping your vit c requirement?). Not being a great fan of dentists (I am convinced that I had fillings put into perfectly good teeth as a child, by a ‘school dentist’ – and without anaesthetic), I had made sporadic visits throughout my life, then bravely settled into 6-monthly visits, probably about 15 years ago. This only lasted a few years, until about 10 years ago, when a young, emotional female dentist told me that if I didn’t stop smoking I was going to lose my teeth. Well, at the time, I was unable to stop smoking (I had tried, several times) due to having a really stressful job.
That was my last visit to a dentist – I felt as though I had been written off. About three years later, I managed to stop smoking, thanks to my niece giving me a vapouriser. I am still using one, and am still addicted to nicotine, but this is a world away from smoking tobacco. However, I have lost a few teeth, and have suffered sporadically with bleeding gums, despite upping my vitamin C to 2 or 3 grams. One tooth has been worrying me recently, and I felt sure that I was going to lose it. Lucky for me, then, that I have been avidly following the discussions here about vitamin C, and recently decided to increase my daily intake to 5g. After only a few days, the tooth has ceased to be a problem*. I have just read Prudence Kitten’s comment about Linus Pauling recommending 6g per day, so I will be doing that from now on. I have just ordered some 1.5g tablets, which will cut down the number of pills I have to take.
My vitamin D intake has been similarly meagre – popping a couple of cod liver oil capsules every day, and not being much of a sun worshipper. Having read much here about this also, I have ordered some 10,000 iu tablets. Although I consider myself to have been fortunate with my health, I am getting on a bit.
*If you want a great dental plaque remover, mix about 1/3 tsp of horseradish powder with 100ml of water, and swish through your teeth for about a minute after brushing them. It will also kill any infections.
Thanks for the acknowledgement, but let me point out:
1. I have no qualifications in medicine or science. (Or “public health”, hee hee).
2. As far as I know, the only thing we can be fairly sure of about nutrition is that it isn’t well understood. (What have nutrition scientists been doing for the past 250 years?)
I would think that 1 gram per day is a very great deal better than most people – and 16 times more than the RDA – so after a while you should have a good level of Vitamin C. Personally, I prefer 6-10 grams – but I weigh 250 lb.
My teeth were said to be perfect until I was about 6, then fell apart when I went to school and began stuffing myself with sweets. But since about 5 years ago I have stopped even going for checkups. Why? I stopped eating ALL grains and foods made from them. No bread, pasta, cakes, biscuits, etc. – and no processed foods with grain products slipped into them, either. (WHY would you put wheat into a posset or a soup?)
I still indulge in modest amounts of sugar, but my teeth are fine. So I think it was the grains that did the harm. It makes sense: if you eat bread or cake, it leaves that sticky paste on your teeth that becomes tartar. Without the sticky layer, sugar just dissolves and washes down your throat.
If you haven’t read Dr Weston A. Price’s classic book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”, I strongly recommend it. Published in 1939 based on research done in the 1930s, it has been widely ignored ever since. If everyone read it and took its advice, I bet the NHS would need about a quarter of the money and bad teeth would be a thing of the past.
Prudence Kitten, yes, I think you’re dead right about nutrition, but that might be because of the imposed system of allopathic medicine that is presented as the only choice. Trainee doctors also receive very little, if any, education in nutrition. I wouldn’t mind betting that some of them think of it as ‘fringe’. And it appears that valid research results are not always assimilated into medical practice. And who funds the research?
Nutrition also seems to be rather subjective, in that some people seem to get by pretty well without supplementing.
I get your point about the effects of eating grains and the foods made from them, but I couldn’t give up my granary bread, Weetabix, Oatibix, scones, toasted currant teacakes . . . etc! (140 lb, but I’m only 5′ 4″).
I haven’t read Dr Price’s book, but I know of him. Which brings me on to AhNotepad’s query about my tooth: no, it wasn’t a root canal failure, but I think has worked loose due to the lack of support from the gum, and has been infected because of this. It is a molar in my bottom LH jaw, and gets a lot of use. However, it has now firmed up since I increased the vit C, and I am confident that it’s now going to stay there!
Back to Dr Price. I read something about him believing that diseases start in the mouth, so he took root canal-filled teeth from cadavers, put them in disinfectant, then implanted them under the skin of laboratory rabbits. He found that the rabbits developed the same diseases that the respective late dental patients had suffered with, or died from. This also demonstrated that it is not possible to adequately disinfect a tooth when doing root canal work. I think this was in a book I have about oil pulling.
A 250lb kitten?. More like a Siberian Tiger.
Seriously though, after stopping eating bread and all the crap with added sugar i really miss English mustard and mayo etc Everything now tastes horribly sweet. Anybody know where i can buy sugar/sweetener free sauce?
Marty G – I make my own mayo, using a stick blender. So easy. Look up a recipe for ‘Two Minute Mayonnaise.’ absolutely no sugar or any nasties – just garlicky deliciousness. I’ll never eat a commercial brand again.
Marty G, you can buy Colman’s English mustard flour, and make up your own with water. When I read your comment, I rushed to the fridge to read the ingredients on my jar of Colman’s, and I see what you mean. Then I checked my tin of Colman’s mustard flour, and it is just that.
I was going to say, what’s a bacon sandwich without a good dollop of Colman’s, but I suppose that’s out of the question.
Or worse, American mustard where the only similarity is it is yellow.
30 seconds mayo (always works as a charm). Put the following ingredients in a glass jar large enough for a stick blender to fit in, or use the blender’s plastic jar:
– 200-300ml of olive oil or (better) very mild extra virgin olive oil; if you use a strong EVOO the mayo will be bitter;
– 1 whole egg;
– half a spoonful of mustard powder;
– the juice of half lemon;
– salt to taste.
Put the stick blender to the bottom of the jar and start it, keeping it at the bottom until pretty much all the mayo is emulsified, then slowly rise it to emulsify the remaining oil at the top.
If it’s too runny, most likely there wasn’t enough oil, sorry but I go by sight and don’t have exact quantities…
It keeps in the fridge for at least a couple of weeks, more if you trust your gut bacteria 🙂
I’ve been making mayo like this for ages now – I always stick to 200ml “light” olive oil, 1 egg, 3 teaspoons lemon juice, mustard powder and salt as mentioned. I put it all into a half litre pyrex jug to mix in with the blender.
It’s important to have the stick blender on the highest setting, then I put the blender in and hold it in place at the bottom, “whizz” for 20 seconds in that position and then slowly draw it upwards as described until all the oil is mixed in.
Good news on the C front then. Tom Levy has frightening information about root canal fillings, and I have 2 of them. Was your troublesome tooth a root job?
The dose is not 1g or 2g or 6g or 10g, it is whatever is needed to get rid of the symptoms, up to bowel tolerance.
Re Vitamin C dosing, it may be instructive to look at some of the papers on intravenous administration of Vitamin C to badly burned patients in hospital.
From Orlando Regional Medical Center (from some years back; I don’t have the date; have they updated their guidelines ?):
…..”Consider a continuous ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) infusion (66 mg/ kg/ hr for 24 hours) among burn patients “…with burns covering equal to or greater than “30 % total body surface area “….
Various papers report Vitamin C dosages, calculated as above, in the neighborhood of 200 or more grams per day. In 2 patients who did not survive, autopsies revealed “Calcium oxalate crystals ……in both kidneys.” (Buehner et al., 2016)
These patients were so badly burned that too much Vitamin C should not be seen as the sole cause of death; and may not have had much to do with death.
Tanaka et al., 2000, stated that 5 g per kg per day “is considered safe”. So for a 70 kg person, this would amount to 350 grams.
In 2019, Nakajima and Matsui said, “High-dose vitamin C was defined as a dosage in excess of 10 g or 24 g within 2 days of admission”; and they found that high-dose Vitamin C, thus defined, reduced mortality compared to a control group.
A quick look at these papers shows that high doses of Vitamin C were limited in the number of days they were given; and treatment initiated ASAP was key to success of treatment. I believe my quotes are accurate, but please check these papers and numbers for yourself (does the website “C for yourself” still exist ? That may have been where I first came across the use of high-dose Vitamin C for severe burns.)
My impression, from a few interviews that I have listened to, and recent personal experience, is that something in the neighborhood of 20 to 24 grams per day, for several days, is the amount that many will arrive at by the bowel-tolerance dosing, in fighting off Covid19 (in addition to whatever other elixirs are being taken). A word of encouragement here: this approach to dosing does not require full-blown diarrhea to determine tolerance.
AhNotepad, have you considered having them removed, and replaced by implants?
I was planning to investigate having a couple, until the C-scam came along. I could probably get an appointment now, but I suspect I would have to produce a negative test and, since, besides not having had any jabs, I have never undergone a test and don’t intend to, it kind of rules that out.
The word for the day is “euphemisms.”
“C-scam” lol
“Let’s go Brandon.” lol
Ha! Ha! Ha! I love the “Let’s go Brandon!” thing!
Brandon Brown? He ain’t no clown – he’s gonna be a champ
For he has got the finest people ever in his camp
And by and by, BB’s support is surely bound to widen
As with one voice they show the world
Just what they think of . . .
I don’t know if implants are any less risky. There is still a dead item in the jaw with surrounding tissue which can harbour bugs, all surrounded by mouth. Since in the past we got the fillings as soon as the dentist had an excuse to drill and fill, I don’t trust any unnecessary interference, and it would be an expensive private job no doubt. Just keep away from sugar and starch, that’s about the best approach IMO
I would take the risk. Stainless steel fittings are attached to bone routinely in operating theatres, and sterile techniques are used to prevent infection. So this is the same, really. Once the gum has healed around the wound, it should stay free of infection.
I don’t know about the cost, but I keep seeing online adverts saying that the price has come down. I don’t click on them.
The trouble is, I’m omnivorous, but do consume far less sugar since I upped my Mg intake.
Sticky. You make some good points today, which I can confirm regarding the School Dental Service, to which we were subjected to after the onset of the NHS. It was well ntentioned, and there would certainly have been children who needed treatment ‘free at the point of need’, whose parents didn’t take them to other practitioners on a regular basis. In my case, I got both!
Somehow, the School Dental Service won hands down against my family dentist, who disagreed with the need for them to slice off the biting surfaces of my young teeth….to this day I think we kids were used as fodder for qualifying student dentists to ‘get some practice on’, at the regional Dental Hospital. ( oh, I am such a cynic).
Of course, for the whole of my life, I have continued to receive regular dental checks, with the expensive cheques to pay for said treatment as required. It has always been a puzzle to me as to why the adult dental service never came under the same umbrella as almost all other medical services. Of course , I have also watched how, over the years, the ‘free at the point of need’ concept has been gradually eroded, so that many services are no longer available without payment.
Strangely enough, our dental check-ups were due at the beginning of the pandemic, so it is now 2 years since we saw a dentist, as our April 2020 appointment was cancelled. Now, unless we have a problem, the backlog of urgent cases means that our single handed dentist is still not in a position to restart regular consultations. Let’s hope we don’t need attention until normal service is restored.
All the vitamin supplements must be doing some good, I suspect.
Reading through your comment, I suddenly wondered if I’d written it myself!! In particular, reflecting that the dental surgery that my mother took me to as a child in the 1960s in the UK seemed to be full of dental students from Australia and South Africa who I also now think were using me to practise on!
The other similarity is that our NHS dentist has also not contacted us for 2 years since we last saw her in August 2020. However, some friends of ours have been having their NHS dental check ups every 6 months, although they live in a different county. I had a look at our dentist’s website and they said appointments can be made if one is in severe pain. I emailed them to point out that other NHS patients (my friends) had been seen all through the pandemic for regular check ups, but also that some of my husband’s teeth are falling apart but there’s no pain because he had root canal treatment in them years ago…but he’s finding it difficult to eat.
Within a day, we received an appointment for a check up…
I feel so lucky that we had a wonderful dentist as children; nhs, 1970s. He mostly saw patients privately but we were privileged as my father had been a patient before we came along. I used to love going to the dentist as he would give us tins of flavoured toothpaste and comics; my mother also arranged a picnic for us all on the way home. We were only allowed fizzy drinks (lucozade if were were sick and sweets seldom. My teeth seem to be surviving well and long may this continue.
Hi Jennifer. I was born in ’53, so my childhood was caught up in the ‘sugar rush’ after rationing ended in 1949. I meant to say in agreement with PK that I also remember eating a lot of sweets as a kid: I was the youngest of seven, quiet and shy, and, looking back, I feel that it was an emotional crutch (replaced by nicotine when I was 17!).
I remember other children – maybe my siblings – talking about having ‘gas’ at the dentist. I don’t know whether this was for fillings or extractions, but I never had gas, nor an injection, for the fillings I was given. But then I never had any extractions.
I think the erosion of the ‘free at the point of need’ concept that you highlight is part of the re-impoverishment of people that has been going on for some time. ‘They’ feel that too much has been given away, and the imbalance needs to be redressed. Now they call it ‘levelling up’, i.e. bringing the level of poverty up.
Sticky – Ditto …
I remember in the 60s my five year old sister being held down by four ‘dentists’ as they attempted to gas her at the ‘NHS dental clinic’, ah the good old days, NOT.
I’ve just had to fork out a considerable sum of money for private dental treatment. All for stuff the NHS used to do for free around 10 years ago – NHS dental care appears, IMO, to have morphed into a fillings, extractions and private referrals service.
I believe that dental treatment is one of the primary proactive methods available to ensuring good overall health – it isn’t just about teeth ! Dentistry is now a two tier health service, the rest of the NHS is rushing headlong into a similar set-up. The British and their funny teeth, some things never change !
Steve, you are right. Malcolm may correct me, but the mouth is the seat of many bugs that can damage bits of the heart, leading to eventual failure. It hosts a wealth of really nasty bugs, and has a blood supply accessible to them, (damaged gums), so into the blood stream they go, and the rest is history. Actually it’s in Tom Levy’s book.
Ah, the good old days. When my older, left-handed brother had his arm tied to the back of his chair, in order to make him write with his right hand at junior school.
Now is just as bad, but in a different way. Due to the govt’s abdication of its responsibility to regulate ‘food’ manufacturers, and control advertising aimed at children, its inability to present appropriate health advice, and the NHS reasons, which you’ve highlighted, now their bright idea is to add
neurotoxinfluoride to our drinking water.Really, shouldn’t they be engaging with the water companies in a different way? That is, making them stop dumping sh*t into our waterways and onto our beaches?
Sticky and AhNotepad. I reckon we are getting into the realms of politics now…AND WHY NOT, I SAY!!!
I worked in Ear Nose and Throat Nursing for a few years, back in the early 1990s and it was impressed on me the importance of the oral and nasal cavities being the source of so many nasties….how come such ideas have been overlooked over the decades? To the point that we are seeing adverts on the telly advising us to get seen by the dentist ( so long as you can afford it ). The same goes for the optician….their purpose is not just to make sure you have decent enough specs to read the papers…they do health checks and report conditions which may well be serious….so get yourself regular eye tests, we are told ( so long as you can afford them) Oh, yes, and the millions of diabetics ( you know the sort of wasters who are bankrupting the NHS) who are encouraged to get health checks by a podiatrist, ( if you can afford to), who will flag up real nasties before amputation become inevitable.
Oh, yes, these wonderful services have been eroded before our very eyes,without us flinching.
Home care, Nursing care, residential care….I could go on and on. The NHS has been starved of not only money, but the ethics I was taught back in the 1960s. It’s not that those working in the NHS are lacking in ethics and integrity…its those who are tasked by the government with managing it. Amen.
Jennifer, you’re so right. Too many ‘business’ people towards the top of the pyramid, who don’t have a background in care or clinical practice. People are just numbers to them.
There are some “doctors” not to be trusted either, that Dr. Hillary on GMTV (or whatever) talks continuous propaganda. You might die without his help, you might die a lot quicker with it.
AhNotepad
Harold Shipman springs to mind, too.
The paper by McCullough and Rose about myocarditis reports in VAERS was withdrawn without comment by Elsevier.
It appears that Jessica Rose put the article up on substack.
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/a-report-on-myocarditis-adverse-events
I wonder if the whistleblower article about Pfizer covid vaccines will be withdrawn by BMJ?
“Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial”
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635
This post of the good Dr has been an interesting journey and a learning experience.
It has been charted that the nutrient content of fruit and vegetables have been declining over time, so where is the problem,?
Its believed the farmer is the problem but the farmer is dictated by the market and the market demands a certain look and feel from their producers in their products.
After maturity a plant has all the nutrients it needs for flowering and fruiting in its tissue.
Produce is picked unripe, and is ripened on its travel to market.
Varieties are bred for look and durability.
Time between purchase and use as well as cooking method is critical.
So if the nutrient content of our fruit and vegetables are declining then it’s the consumer who is driving it by their purchasing habits.
Western societies urbanization also drives the way our food is grown and the quality we get.
I keep reading on sites discussing fermentation – such as this one: https://bodyecology.com/articles/sauerkraut-is-a-superior-source-of-vitamin-c/ – that the process increases the vitamin C content of vegetables; notably cabbage, when making sauerkraut.
They all quote this study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15223595/ which I find impenetrable. If anybody is able to make any sense of this, and confirm those claims, it would be a gas (geddit?).
sticky. I was introduced to fermented foods on this blog a number of years ago. I am a great believer in raw foods which promote good gut health, and raw, home made sauerkraut fits the bill perfectly. Prof Goran Sjoberg from Sweden frequently wrote on this blog, and encouraged me to persevere in my attempts to make it correctly. It is not pasteurised like the bought product. I followed his instructions and gleaned suggestions available on the Internet. I finally decided on a practical sized quantity for just the 2 of us at home. I only make it with red cabbages. I read round the subject widely, and remain convinced of its nutritious value, but haven’t retained all the facts and figures in my aging brain; I merely believe!. Although it resembles the commercial and home made pickled red cabbage I ate from childhood, there is no comparison in its value as a food.
I prepare organic red cabbage in the late winter, and approx 1kg cabbage, with 2% sea salt massaged in by hand until the juice runs, is a decent size. When packed tightly into a 1kg Kilner jar it will keep, unopened, for at least a year. I now prepare enough to fill 6 jars, and open the first one after 2 months. My experience of using traditional German pots proved a bit awkward for us. The Kilner seal works perfectly, so long as the finely sliced cabbage remains submerged in the brine. I do this by packing the top of the jar with thick outer leaves of the cabbage. I store them in a dark cool atmosphere, until opened, then pop the jar into the fridge to consume over about 3 weeks.
I hope this helps.
Jennifer, thanks for the tutorial, but I do make my own sauerkraut! A few years ago I read Michael van Stratten describing why it is so good. At the time, I was getting stomach cramps that I took to be an IBS symptom. It worked wonders for my guts. so that was the start of a learning curve.
I also make my own kefir, from some grains I bought off eBay about 5 years ago. I think it may be more beneficial than sauerkraut, as it is likely to have more bacterial strains, and I actually consume it every day. But no fibre, and minimal vitamin C, so I imagine they would be complementary foods.
I envy your production regime! My flat is economic on space, so I normally do a couple of jars at a time. I keep meaning to try using red cabbage, but will definitely do it now.
To remind you of why you started making it in the first place – I have just read that sauerkraut generally contains 3 or 4 main strains of bacteria, but others occur in varying proportions, depending on the conditions, and there can be as many as 28. So probably on a par with Kefir. Then it’s a good source of vitamin C, and also contains several other vitamins and minerals, as well as plenty of fibre.
It seems that the wider the range of bacterial strains in your gut, the healthier you are likely to be. I remember seeing a documentary about a tribe – unfortunately, I can’t remember where they lived – whose members had, it was claimed, the most diverse microbiomes in the world (and were very healthy, if I remember), They were hunter/gatherers, and basically ate whatever they could find, on a seasonal basis.
i understand that the microbiome constitutes 70-80% of the immune system, so pretty important to your health, I’d say.
I’ve just made a connection to a discussion that was taking place earlier about the benefits, or otherwise, of eating plants, and an all-meat diet.
What if the ‘nutritional content’ of foods isn’t really important, but that it’s the particular strains of bacteria they harbour which benefit our health? After all, it is known that different strains manufacture various substances, such as serotonin (95% of it, apparently), other neurotransmitters, SCFAs, and 7 of the 8 B vitamins.
An all-meat diet would presumably be packed with a wide range of microbes from the respective animals. Although their diets are limited, they are exposed (hopefully) to all the goodies living in the soil and drifting through the air in that healthy country environment.
Then, as long as the vegetables you eat contain enough appropriate prebiotics, your microbiome is behind the wheel.
Just a thought.
Sticky. Your replies are so interesting, and thank you for the info. Certainly, it is the variation of foods that we consume, that is as important as the ratio of macronutrients that we seem to get stessed about on these days. Years ago I was fortunate to be nominated to attend ( for free) a 2 day session with Michael van Stratten at the hospital where I worked. Coming away with 2 complementary books of his, I was so interested. But in reality, 30 years ago, the NHS was in the grips of the high carb, low fat era., so I had to keep my thoughts to myself, I am sad to say.
Still, it’s great to hear about your kefir, which we consume on alternate days. I make ours in Grolsche bottles ( hubby got the ale…I got the re-usable pressure bottles), which causes me great joy as the bubbles froth up on releasing the pressure. Such fun, as I believe home food production should be regarded as a joy and not a chore.
You could well be right about vitamins, but I’m pretty sure that minerals are important too. They can’t be “manufactured” in the body but need to be in the food we eat, so nutritional content of foods IS important when it comes to minerals, isn’t it? Similarly with essential fatty acids (EFAs) – the body can’t make those either.
Thanks, Jennifer. MvS was talking about ‘superfoods’ before they were latched onto by the chattering classes. I have his eponymously-titled book, which is a great resource.
Since time immemorial, I have been washing fruit and veg (where the skin is eaten) in soapy water. I’d realised that pesticides etc. must be in an oil-based carrier, othrwise they would wash off in the rain. Then, years later, I bought another MvS book ‘Superjuice’, and he was recommending doing just that.
I think cooking might have a dertimental effect on bacteria.
AhNotepad. “Domestos kills 99% of all known germs”
They can’t say 100%, because they can’t prove it. I would argue that some bacteria would survive the cooking process. I have also read that there’s no point in eating fermented foods, since the stomach acid destroys the bacteria in them. Obviously not the case.
Not exactly… what is important is that you feed your microbiome what it needs to sustain itself, then it will sustain you. I think it is in Robert Ludwig’s latest book ‘Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine.
Of all sites, a Seaworld site, has a piece about the diet of cousin gorilla. Not quite vegetarian, but ….
“The composition of the gorilla’s diet varies by subspecies and seasonality.
Western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla): This subspecies consumes parts of at least 97 plant species. About 67% of their diet is fruit, 17% is leaves, seeds and stems and 3% is termites and caterpillars.
Eastern lowland gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri): This subspecies consumes parts of at least 104 plant species.
https://seaworld.org/animals/all-about/gorilla/diet/
anglosvizzera, good point.
I was up late. . .
For information on vitamins in the treatment of various problems – including Covid-19, especially Vitamin C, go to http://www.orthomolecular.org A very interesting site with lots of information and links to studies. The Chinese were using intravenous vitamin C in huge doses to alleviate serious symptoms of C19. It’s very effective, even in animals. We, and I think guineapigs, are the only animals who don’t make our own vitamin C. However, a farmer in the US had cows who were dying of a particular infection. He reckoned their systems were stressed by the disease and they needed a top-up of vitamin C to fight the infection. On dosing the cows with the vitamin they no longer died of the infection.
There’s a petition to repeal the Coronavirus Act, if anybody would like to sign it:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/597665
Thanks for that, now gone to twelve more people.
Good work. Just realised it’s to have a referendum on it, so I’m not holding out too much hope.
Hello Dr Kendrick, I am in the midst of reading the Clot Thickens and something occurred to to me. Does cholesterol occur in the plaques with people who’s CHD is from smoking?
Thanks
I’m new to posting to the blog and have asked the question under the wrong topic. I will repost under the correct topic.
Robert MacGregor: As I understand the thrombogenetic theory Dr. Kendrick is proposing in the book, the small amount of cholesterol found in plaques likely comes from the red blood cells which are components of the clots which form the plaques. This would be the case regardless of the cause of the damage to the endothelium.
Not quite. I am stating that the free cholesterol (non-esterfied – not attached to a fatty acid) that constitutes cholesterol crystals cannot have come from within LDL, as there is no non-esterified cholesterol in LDL. Ergo, it must have come from somewhere else. The only ‘somewhere else’ that contains ‘free’ cholesterol molecules is the membrane of red blood cells. Ergo, cholesterol crystals represent remnants of red blood cells – not LDL. It is chemically impossible that they came from LDL.
Dr. Kendrick: Thanks for the clarification. Would it be correct to say that the cholesterol molecules produced in the liver or through digestion and transported by lipoproteins are always attached to free fatty acids? And that the cholesterol molecules in cell membranes, for example, are not?
Essentially correct. Terms and conditions apply
So there are not the great pools of cholesterol in contained in the plaques or beneath the endothelium as popular portrayed?
Moves are afoot in the USA to bring prosecutions against the perpetrators of the Covid virus and the so-called vaccines. Dr Joseph Mercola has posted the following discussion with Francis A Boyle, who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/11/28/covid-prosecution-strategy.aspx?ui=3742c9a247fde9c9742c11e995634ce6cf9cc2367873bcc2f91e3e1ab558ddf0&sd=20210903&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20211128&mid=DM1053414&rid=1335448138
Dr Mercola is deleting his posts after 48 hours, due to harassment from TPTB. I was unable to post this yesterday, so this means that you only have 10 hours and 50 minutes, from the time of this comment, to read the article.
If you missed the above article, the video accompanying it is available here:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/FHxfjf88SkuD/
Increased heart disase risk from Mrna COVID ‘Vaccines’:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/circ.144.suppl_1.10712
It is good to read an actual Dr writing about life on the front line and how difficult it is to speak up against the authorities views. I have just read another blog that made me feel like laughing and crying in equal measure. It was written by a GP. I quote what he said when asked in his annual appraisal what effect Covid has had on his life at work.. ” ‘Covid made my life easier, reduced the standard of patient care, and I was glad for the cast-iron job security job while my patients were losing theirs’. He moved on swiftly”. https://tcp.art.blog/2021/11/25/all-hail-covid/
Dr. John Campbell has a YouTube video (many, in fact, on covid) that looks at a study addressing vitamin D levels. Just search the good doctor and ‘Vitamin D levels advised’.